Erik and the Chocolate Factory
by AuraBlackWolf
Summary: One of the last things Erik ever expected was to be one of the lucky five winners of the golden ticket. Between his poor family, an ill grandfather, a dick of a boss, 4 brats and one enigmatic chocolatier, Erik has his work cut out for him. Now how is he suppose to steal from one of the most powerful companies on earth? Movie-Fusion
1. Chapter 1

Notes: Originally written in 2012.

So, I re-found this small gem of a story when I was cleaning out my old files. It hadn't been opened since it's completion back in Dec, 2012. Which was a long, long time ago.  
I wrote this right after my other X-men fusion 'The Maze' but I just never got around to posting it and promptly forgot all about it.  
So I've decided to go over it with a fine-tooth comb and edit it to my satisfaction. My writing has changed a lot since then, and I've found it very refreshing to reread and rewrite something I enjoyed a long time ago.  
I know I haven't posted anything new in a long time and I'm so sorry for that. I have a lot of works that still need a conclusion but my muse died a horrible, horrible death. (RIP muse, I will miss you)  
So anyway I hope you enjoy this, I'm going to post it little by little as I reedit and rewrite it, so I will try to post once/twice a week. Remember it's already all written up with a big 'The End' so I WILL be finishing this. Chapters will alternate between short and semi-long.  
It's actually quite long too, which is awesome. I will be adding tags as I go along, since things will most likely pop up later for me to add.  
If anyone has any questions or if you just enjoy it please comment, I like comments. they are the life-blood of a writer.

Also this work is NOT beta-read.

"Mr. Lehnsherr what did I tell you!" Mr. Shaw sneered down at the young man in front of him.

Erik barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes at his boss, but it was a very near thing.

"To put two even coats on your shoes." Erik in a voice devoid of emotion.

"No, incompetent idiot!" Mr. Shaw scowled. "I told you three coats!"

Erik could remember the order Mr. Shaw had given him earlier quiet clearly, something that his boss seemed to be lacking, Mr. Shaw had said two coats and not a single drop more.

Of course, instead of voicing his thoughts on the matter he swallowed all the complaints that were practically begging to come out and apologized instead.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir. It won't happen again." in his best apologetic voice, which to say wasn't apologetic at all but more monotone.

It seemed to appease Mr. Shaw at least because instead of saying anything else he just sneered again before leaning back in his chair and sticking his three hundred dollar loafers into Erik's face. Erik moved his head backwards, almost gaining a black eye for his troubles if he had moved a little slower.

Erik burned with rage, wanting nothing more than to splash the shoe shiner all over his boss's face and expensive suit before stomping him in the balls several times over.

But alas, he couldn't live out his fantasy so instead he silently added another coat to the shoes. Once he had finished polishing them up until they shinned Mr. Shaw was up and moving.

Erik made sure to bite his lip so that he wouldn't cry out in pain when his boss purposely placed his shined shoes down carelessly on top of one of his hands, pressing down until a small audio pop could be heard. The smirk on the man's face told of sadistic pleasure while he shifted his foot around, harshly grounding Erik's hand into the ground.

"I expect you here bright and early tomorrow, Mr. Lehnsherr." Mr. Shaw commanded before leaving the room.

Erik stayed on his knees for several minutes afterwards, taking deep meditative breaths in order to control his anger and pain at his situation.

After he was sure he wouldn't go into a manic fit of anger and lash out Erik slowly got up and picked up his rags and shoe shine tins with his good hand, for now ignoring his bleeding and red hand, he had clearly popped a few of his knuckles but the pain wasn't bad enough to indicate a break so it was easily ignorable for now, he'd deal with it once he got out of here in one piece.

Now that he'd been dismissed for the day Erik headed out into the streets, moving towards Bernard St which was half-way across the city. It was a long walk but having a place away from Mr. Shaw's business area was more important than sore legs.

On Bernard St, there was a small corner that had been sectioned off for his own little shoe shinning business. The man who owned the corner market shop next to the bend where Erik set up shop was an old friend of his grandfather and was gracious enough to spare him the area for a few hours a day so that he could earn some money for his family.

Today Erik was lucky enough to make it to the corner before everyone else got off work, which gave him time to set up before what would hopefully be a rush of business men who needed a quick polish before the next day. It was a good time as any to do business, although doing it early in the mornings would probably get him more business but it was rare that Mr. Shaw would let him off early enough to make it before the majority of business men would already have their shoes shined by others. Most times Mr. Shaw would keep him all day from dawn till dusk, leaving him no choice but to go home without anything to show for it. He hated that his mother would give him an understanding and tired smile on those days.

He had enough time to inspect his hand, after wiping away the blood from the small split cuts he decided to not wrap it until he got home, it would be hard to work with something on one of his hands, besides that he would only think to use one of his dirty socks to wrap it since he didn't want to waste any money on bandages.

Erik was in luck this day, after he set up the wooden chair that the shop owner held for him he got a few tired business men who needed a quick shine and polish, it wasn't a lot but it had been a good week for him.

This was the third day this week that Mr. Shaw had let him off before it got dark so he'd been able to work and earn a few dollars. Which was more than he had been able to earn last month when Mr. Shaw had worked him so hard he had barely managed to get three or four hours of sleep per-day.

He'd made ten dollars this week, which was something very rare and he couldn't help but smile at the thought of the food he could purchase with the amount.

Mr. Shaw didn't bother to pay him for the work he did for him, it wasn't that simple. Erik wasn't his employee in the traditional sense and Erik couldn't charge his customers at the corner a whole lot because then they'd just go to someone else instead.

Ten dollars was a lot of money though and he'd been saving up for weeks so he had quite the small honey pot at home. He wanted to go to the grocery right away and spend it on all the delicious foods that lined the shelves but he knew he needed to be smart about it.

Tonight, he would only buy some vegetables to add into his mother's cabbage soup for the night. While the very idea of tender and hearty meat made him salivate he knew that his stomach and his family's weren't use to meat and may reject it. It had been too long after all, better to start small and build up to it.

So, what would it be, carrot, squash or a potato?

Erik pondered this as he packed up his stuff once more. He would be giving a small portion of his earnings to his grandfather's friend, Mr. Solomon at the grocery, it was only fair after all. Any other person would have called the police on him if they found him on the street trying to shine shoes.

He walked into the store with the wooden chair in one hand and trying to balance his brushes and tins in the other. Ignoring the throbbing that was steadily getting worse.

"Mr. S?"

"Erik my boy. You done already?" Asked old man seated behind the countertop.

"Yes, there aren't many people out in the streets at this hour. I thought I'd head on home after buying Mom some vegetables for dinner." Erik answered.

"Ah yes you mustn't needlessly worry your mother, blessed woman. You'll tell your grandfather that I said hello. It's a damned shame that he can't move about these days. One of the downsides of getting old I suppose. One of these days that'll be me stuck in a bed. I unfortunately don't have a strapping young grandson like Joe has to help me." The old man chuckled sadly.

Erik smiled politely back at him. Everyone knew that Mr. Solomon's only living relative was an alcoholic son that had never bothered to check on his elder father except to ask for more money for his vice.

"Don't you worry Mr. S. The day you stop walking is the day I become rich enough to take care of you all." Erik joked, hoping to cheer up the elder, he didn't really know how to deal with sad people, his own family were such positive people even with the circumstances they lived in.

It confounded him how he was so cynical and morbid in humor, maybe it was a defense in order to combat the sunshine from his family's smiles?

Mr. Solomon laughed in delight, the earlier gloomy air vanished.

"Well then I guess I'm going to be walking forever huh boy?"

Erik smirked, letting his rather large teeth display, he'd been told he had a rather unsettling smile from his former classmates and acquaintances. Only his family and family's friends liked his grin.

"So what do you have for me then? It's the end of the week, did Mr. Shaw pay you anything today." Mr. Solomon asked, the last part wasn't a question though, they both knew that Mr. Shaw wouldn't pay him a penny if he could help it.

Erik's face twisted in a scowl. "Of course not, it will be a cold day in hell before that old bastard will pay me for any of my work. All the money I've made has been from the corner."

"It's been a while, five, six months? Since you've starting working for that foul man. You should just stop working for him, I know that you don't just shine his shoes…does he-?" Mr. Solomon asked hesitantly, looking shaken.

"He what?" Incomprehension shown on Erik's face before comprehension dawned as Mr. Solomon coughed a few times and gestured vaguely towards his pants.

"Oh that-! NO! Gods no!" Erik's face wrinkled in disgust at the very thought. He could feel the bile rising in this throat at the very thought of having sexual relations with the older man.

Mr. Solomon chuckled at the sight of Erik's face, despite the rather dark conversation it wasn't often you saw Erik Lehnsherr's face twisted like that.

"I'm sorry Erik but you can hardly blame me for thinking the worse. The man runs you ragged and doesn't pay you and yet you stay. Why haven't you quit yet? I know the rumors that go around that man but he must be a legit business man since I've seen him in the newspaper talking to some political ya-hoo and the Chief of police."

Erik was silent for a minute before letting out a huge sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I can't Mr. S. I want to believe me but I can't. You know as well as I that Mr. Shaw is a powerful and influential man and I don't dare to cross him right now. He's a vindictive man and who knows what he'd do to mother and grandfather if I displease him? But you are right about me doing other stuff for him. Not… _that_ of course but I do run errands for him at times."

Mr. Solomon's face was shrewd as he looked upon Erik.

Erik couldn't- wouldn't meet his gaze, instead he kept his eyes downward and tried to backtrack in his thoughts.

"I'm going to take a guess here and say that these little errands you run aren't the legal kind?"

Erik flushed and protests vocally. "I can't deny that I wouldn't want to be caught on one of these errands but-"

"You don't need to defend yourself to me, boy! I can't say I understand your situation but I know you, you have a good heart and a level head on your shoulders. Could make something great out of yourself if you had the pennies for the schooling."

"Now I know that Mr. Shaw use to pay you when you first started to work for him, since you would stop in to say hello once in a while. I bet the moment you went on one of these _errands_ for him he stopped paying you and started blackmailing you instead."

Erik was speechless in silent awe at Mr. Solomon's insight, he was practically spot on. Only his grandfather's friend would be that shrewd to look at it from that angle.

"Come off it kid, you don't have to be so shocked, I've had time to think about it these last few months. I may be old but I'm no fool. I just wish you hadn't gotten yourself in such a mess." Mr. Solomon said mournfully.

Erik's face flushed a dull pink. "I know sir. I too wish I hadn't been foolish enough to accept it when he had offered me a job. But it's alright, really. When grandfather's better I'm going to get my family out of this city."

"You're talking about your mother's dream of owning a small farm out in the countryside. You still intend to fulfill it for her? Erik my son…I know it's hard to believe but your grandfather-"

Erik interrupted him before he could complete his sentence. "My grandfather will get better, once I've saved up enough money to pay for his medicine it'll all be alright."

Mr. Solomon sighed in defeat, but didn't argue. He knew that Erik was stubborn and mule-headed about his goals, he also didn't have the heart to reason about it either.

"Alright boy, I won't say anything more on the subject. Why don't you hold onto this week's pay then and pay me at the end of the month instead?"

"What? No I couldn't do that, we had an arrangement and I don't need your pity old man."

"It's not pity, young man. I just thought that your family would enjoy something a bit more…sustainable to eat this week instead of adding only a few meager vegetables to your mother's cabbage soup. It's not just about you Erik, remember that." Mr. Solomon scolded.

Erik's face once again flushed in shame and anger. "I know that."

"It's your pride, I know. I remember how it was to be a young man in his prime. Just take the money and buy something nice for your mother and grandfather for me eh?"

"…Thank you."

Mr. Solomon just waved in dismissal. "Just get boy!"

Erik smirked weakly and left quickly after that. He walked the two blocks to the food market, which was thankfully still open. He bought one large potato, two big carrot sticks and after much internal debate a small stick of butter. If they rationed this all could last them the entire week.

Of course, he hadn't kept all his money in his wallet. He wouldn't put it past Mr. Shaw or any of his cronies to pat him down and take it from him given the chance. He'd taken six dollars from his hidden spot under a floor board that was position just right underneath his bed.

He'd been planning on giving Mr. Solomon two dollars and using whatever he had left to get some food, mostly whatever was on the clearance table. The table was mostly filled with bruised and close to expiring food but the prices were half the original price which was the only thing that Erik cared about.

Mr. Solomon's compassion and pity had stayed his hand once again, this wasn't the first time the elder man hadn't let Erik pay him.

He still couldn't decide whether to be pissed or thankful, on one hand his pride told him to be angry at the pity of other people, but his heart oozed gratitude and relief.

His small family really needed any little cent they could get their hands on.

In the end, Erik had learned to use both of those feelings to his advantage. The anger he used when he worked for Mr. Shaw on one of his errands, the gratitude helped him when he was with his mother and grandfather. Seeing them happy, even for a short while filled him with a sense of achievement and pride while the former filled with enough disgust at himself and others to drown a sewer rat.

The medication that his grandfather needed to take to keep up his health was expensive and he'd been saving here and there for a while now in order to afford enough of it so that he would get better enough to be moved from their shack of a house.

Erik's grandfather hadn't been able to leave his small cramped bed for the last five years, his legs had weakened and became brittle to the touch. Every winter Erik and his mother despaired that it would be his last.

But Grandpa Joseph, Joe to his family and friends, held on despite the odds stacked against him. Even when his body failed him, his mind remained as sharp as ever. He would tell tales of fancy from his youth from the bed as Erik and his mother puttered around the small one room house-shed that encompassed their whole lives.

About how he'd once worked at Charles Xavier's factory when he still had the use of his legs and all the fanciful things he'd seen and done there.

About how much he missed it and to this day still mourned when Mr. Xavier had closed his factory down to outsiders because of spies from rival companies that tried to steal his recipes or tried to sabotage his goods before they were to be shipped out.

When Erik heard those stories nowadays he couldn't help but feel shame, where once he felt wonder and envy, because what grandpa Joe didn't know was that Erik worked for Mr. Shaw.

Actually, what his family believed was that Erik worked in Mr. Solomon's corner shop, thankfully his grandfather hadn't seen his friend in a long time so the stories would never get crossed.

Grandpa Joe would have Erik's neck rung if he knew he worked for one of the worse of those rival companies that had sabotaged Xavier, Shaw's Candy and Goods.

In truth he was pretty sure his mother knew, especially when once a few weeks ago she had come home late one night with a strange expression on her face, Erik had come home shortly before her after he'd run one of the errands that Mr. Shaw ordered him to do. She had seen him and didn't waste any time with coming over and hugging him tightly, Erik had been greatly concerned because while his mother was free with affection she knew his limits. He hadn't asked her and she never said, but somehow he knew that she had found out he worked for Mr. Shaw. Erik suspected Mr. Solomon, but without proof he wouldn't say anything. Better to be quiet about it and leave things unsaid.

Erik got home just as the moon rose up in the night sky. There was a chill in the air that promised a frost in the morning.

"Mother?" He called out as he stepped through the doorway, making sure to beat off the mud of the bottom of his boats before he took to many steps inside.

"Shh! Your grandfather just fell asleep." Erik's mother hissed out near the stove as she stirred with a wooden ladle.

Erik winced and looked over to the other side of the room where his grandfather slept, if he had been paying attention he would have heard the rather loud snores coming from the bundle of blankets.

Erik tiptoed to his mother, making sure to avoid the floor boards that liked to creak and groan when you stepped on them.

"Bad day?" He whispered to her as he placed his bag on the table softly.

"Yes, his pain was pretty bad today, I know he tries to hide it but it's getting worse." She whispered back as she steered the pot of water and thin cabbage, it wasn't much but cabbage grew in even the worse conditions and so that was what Erik and his mother hand planted in the small patch of dirt outside their house, they were luckily in that they had someplace to plant anything since living smack dab in the middle of a city meant brick and concrete mostly.

"How much worse?"

She hesitated but he had gotten her to promise him to never lie to him about the family's health once he became an adult, so with reluctance his mother spoke. "Worse than last month, it's not just his legs anymore either, the pain is spreading to his back and chest."

Erik's face went taut with frustration and fear. "Damn it!"

Mrs. Lehnsherr's face reflected her sadness and frustration at the situation, almost mirroring her son's. But while Erik's held some hope his mother's held unhappy acceptance.

"I don't think he'll make it this winter, the first snow fall should be coming down any time now and with the cold, I don't know." She stopped herself from speaking about it further.

"Just…don't get your hopes up Erik dear, he's lived a long life. I don't think there's anything else we can really do except make him as comfortable as we can."

Erik nodded even though he didn't believe her, there was something he could do, there had to be.

Erik almost had enough money to pay for the medicine. At least another three weeks and he'd have enough to go to the apothecary and purchase several bottles of it. He knew that the medicine could become dangerous if you were to take it then stop suddenly for a while before retaking it once again, and with his grandfather's health already declining he didn't want to risk it. So, he wanted to make sure he had enough money to buy more than one bottle.

If his grandfather can hold out until then…

Erik didn't share these thoughts with his mother though, there was no reason to give her false hope until he could guarantee that that hope could come into fruitarian.

Erik showed his mother the vegetables that he'd bought, and to say that she was overjoyed would be an understatement. He watched, pleased, as his mother puttered around the small stove, cutting a small portion of one of the carrots and putting it into the pot. She softly hummed a tune she had sung to him as a child to get him to go asleep as she worked. There was a small, three-day old loaf of bread his mother had gotten from work as payment that day, it would go wonderfully with the butter, although they would only use a small thin portion so they could enjoy some tomorrow as well.

Erik almost smiled as he listened to her, walking around the small room as he cleaned up all he could and straighten a few things, while also trying to stay quiet enough so not to interrupted his grandfather's rest.

All in all, today hadn't been a total waste of a day.


	2. Chapter 2

Note:short chapter I know, but I didn't feel like waiting a few days for the next update. So I thought I'd just give you another one quickly.

I may just be posting a chapter a day with the way I'm tearing through the rewrite.  
Remember this is not beta-read, I will go over it but I'm more then likely to miss something real obvious.

Chapter 2

Erik ambled through the heavy snow. Today was a rare day for him as Mr. Shaw was out of town for some no doubt shady business, so that meant that Erik had the day off as well as some of the next day. He was going to go early to his spot in the corner and set up his things, hopefully snagging some of the early customers, they generally tipped him much more than the afternoon or evening crowd. He was running a bit low on shoe polish so he might just have to buy some more from Mr. Solomon.

Shaw only let Erik use really expensive shoe shine when he polished his shoes, so Erik couldn't use any of that. Not if he wanted to waste a lot of money in buying more of it on his own dime. Luckily for Erik, not many people cared what kind of quality of shoe polish he used when he worked so he was able to buy some really cheap stuff from Mr. S for his normal customers.

"Have you heard?"

"Oh yes! Can you believe it?"

"I know! It's like some kind of fairy tale."

Erik turned his head as a pair of gossiping women passed him by, chattering loudly with excitement.

He dismissed it quickly from his mind but when he saw a large group of people standing near a post board all talking loudly with fevered excitement he couldn't help but walk over, his curiosity peaked enough to see what the fuss was all about.

Maneuvering around the mass of people he made his way to the post.

A large poster was plastered to the wood, its bright coloring and big words stood out against the dreary wood and white sky. Dwarfing all the other smaller advertising papers pinned to the wood.

As Erik slowly read the words his confusion mounted, along with a feeling of…anticipation.

 **Dear People of the World,**

 **I, Charles Xavier of Xavier's Chocolates am opening up my factory for five lucky people. These lucky five will be shown around personally by me, and will learn all the secrets and magic of my factory to do as they please when they tour the whole factory till the end.**

 **Five golden tickets have been hidden underneath the ordinary wrapping paper of five Xavier chocolates. These candy bars may be anywhere where my chocolates are sold. These five lucky winners will get to spend a whole day in my factory. Four of those winners will receive a lifetime supply of my chocolates. In addition, one of these lucky winners may receive a greater surprise, greater than anything you could ever imagine.**

 **Sincerely, Charles Xavier**

What the hell?

Erik ignored the buzz of excitement around him and went to his corner to set up shop. He felt numb inside, which was at odds with the weird fluttering in his chest.

Who cared about all of that? Five candy addicts would be going into Mr. Xavier's factory, good for them. That didn't have anything to do with Erik, who could hardly afford a freaking carrot, much less a chocolate candy bar.

Once upon a time long before his father and brothers had died Erik could remember getting a Xavier bar as a birthday present every year, back then they all had still been poor but more well off then nowadays. To this very day he could still remember how much enjoyment he gotten from that bar of chocolate. His family had gotten a kick out of teasing him about it, his father use to say he was like a whole different person once the chocolate touched his tongue.

Erik hadn't had any chocolate in almost ten years now…such a long time.

He shook his head sharply when he realized that he was pining and staring off into space instead of working. This was no time to daydream of things long past. That was something he could no longer afford to do. He was an adult now with serious problems ahead of him. He had no time for sweets and childish thoughts.

His family was depending on him to make some money. His mother already worked hard as a cleaning lady for several of the local inns and also took care of the house and grandfather whenever she could. She worked so hard to earn so little and the least he could do was the same in support.

As the day became long he got few and far customers, Erik venomously blamed it on the elation buzzing in the air. Despite being open for business for almost the whole day he got few customers then he would have hopped, while Mr. Solomon had a hard time keeping up with customers as they wiped out his entire shipment of Xavier's chocolates.

He went home disgruntled and annoyed with the world and Mr. Xavier.

It seemed that the day's events though would continue to haunt him, for when he got home his mother and grandfather were glued to their small, black and white rickety TV. It only worked part of the time and that was because he'd taken his father's tools to it while also building a small metal antennae on their roof to steal their neighbor's cable.

It looked like tonight would be one of the nights it was working.

"Erik, my boy, have you heard?! Mr. Xavier is opening his factory again!" Grandpa Joe announced with excitement while wiggling in his bed, mostly it was his arms and head that were whipping around to showcase his happiness.

Erik bit the tip of his tongue to stop himself from saying something callous. This was the most active he'd seen his grandfather make in months and Erik didn't have the heart to hurt him with his spiteful words.

"Yes, I have. The whole city is in an uproar. Mr. Solomon was cursing himself blue over the loss of his weekly shipment of chocolate in only a day's time."

Grandpa Joe beamed and laughed loudly. "Isn't it wonderful, oh poor Bill, he must be tearing out the little hairs on his head. Oh, how I wish I was a younger man, I would go hunting for that golden ticket myself just so I can see inside that wonderful factory one more time." Joe sighed in wonder as his daughter-in-law and grandson smiled at him.

"I would love to meet Mr. Xavier again of course. Such a delightful young man he'd been when I had known him, did you know he's only a few years older than you my boy? He was ever so polite when you spoke to him but with such a wild imagination, he was filled to the brim with such outlandish ideas of fancy and wonder. It's a rare thing nowadays to see sadly, especially in adults."

Erik nodded absently as he moved around the room getting himself comfortable.

"Come and sit with us Erik and watch the TV." His mother said gently once he had his shoes off and into a pair of soft worn leggings and shirt.

Erik was indecisive for a moment before he gave up and dragged his body to where his mother was sitting on Grandpa Joe's bed. They didn't comment or question, his mother gave him a short hug around the shoulders while his grandfather just smiled at him and gave him two quick pats on the back.

Erik managed a smile back for them before their attention went back to the fuzzy screen.

Erik listened as well to the news reporters who talked excitedly about who would be the first person to get the golden ticket and speculation about the whys of Xavier opening his factory to five individuals and other such drivel.

Erik snorted while his mother and grandfather looked back at him curiously.

"Mark my words the first person to get a ticket will be a binge eater, most likely a fat teen or overgrown adult." Erik scowled as his mother scolded him half-seriously and his grandfather laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

Erik had been only half right.

Barely twenty-four hours had passed after the announcement of the contest before the first golden ticket was found by some kid in Scotland.

"Well I was mostly right."

Currently all three of the Lehnsherr family were crammed in front of the TV again.

Before that Erik had gone up on the roof earlier, as the antennae had stopped functioning. Also, his foot accidently went through a rotting piece of roof.

So that was something else he needed to take care of, he would have to find the time to patch it up before the next snow fall. Luckily it was directly over his own bed so if it didn't get down right away his mother and grandfather wouldn't suffer hugely over it.

 **"** **Hello everyone, I'm here at the home of one Sean Cassidy, a young man who was the first lucky kid to find one of Xavier's five golden tickets. Mr. Cassidy, I'm sure everyone at home is wondering how you reacted the moment you found the ticket?"**

The camera panned from the plastic face of the reporter to displayed the winner.

The imagine wasn't what most people would expect for an instant celebrity, young, skinny, and ginger haired, the boy was pale skinned and had a host of freckles attacking his face.

He also looked completely bored with the situation and was munching on a rather large toffee almond crunch Xavier bar.

 **"** **Well I was on my fourth Xavier bar of the day when I bit down onto something that wasn't chocolate, so I was like thinking, caramel? Peanut butter? Some kind of nut or bean? And then I looked down and saw this poking through the wrapper."**

The boy held up a slightly bitten in ticket. The golden shine of the paper caught the camera's eye as he waved it a bit in the air before pocketing it.

The boy's pale face was completely smeared with melted chocolate from the chocolate he was currently eating.

 **"** **Amazing, what did your parents have to say when they saw this amazing opportunity for their son?"**

The reporter got a look of bewilderment from Sean at that question. It was like he honestly didn't know how to answer it.

 **"** **What do you mean? I haven't seen them for a month."** Sean's face twisted in thought. **"Or maybe it's been a year, it doesn't matter anyway since I doubt they know anything about this. Maybe they'd see it on the TV though. Who knows."**

You can see that the reporter was at a loss end at that.

The camera kind of panned outward and you could see the disaster of a room around them, candies and junk food littered the surface of almost every piece of furniture. A large television with more game systems then Erik could count was situated behind them, some kind of horror movie was playing on mute in the background.

Erik watched fascinated as some half naked teen got slashed by a serial killer. He felt his mother twitch at his side and knew that she was fighting the urge to cover his eyes even though he was old enough to start his own family should he desire.

 **"** **Okay then, well it's a momentous moment for us all out in the world, so how did you celebrate when you found out if I may ask?"**

 **"** **I ate more chocolate."** The kid said before shoving the rest of the bar down his throat and walking away from the reporter and camera to turn his television volume back on.

The interview was clearly over and the feed switched back to the news anchor as they talked about how there are only now four tickets left and how much harder it will become to gain one of the them with how popular the sale of Xavier's chocolates had gone up.

Erik snorted when the segment ended and another news worthy story began. "That kid's just lucky that his body has a fast metabolism or else he'd be as fat as Georgia."

"Erik!" His mother shouted, outraged at his rudeness,

Erik not really caring to much just shrugged helplessly.

"Calm down girl, the boy has a point. That child is clearly spoiled with no adult supervision." Grandpa Joe said smartly, a frown on his face showed he was thinking of the spoiled child not even showing any excitement over finding one of the tickets, it clearly bothered him given how excited he himself had been.

Erik's mom just sent the both of them disappointed looks as she got up to do some yard work. Their next batch of cabbage should be almost ready to pull out.

"I'll help." Erik said quickly as he got up, giving his grandfather a quick hug he skittered off after his mother.

"Are you really mad or is this something else?" Erik asked his mother as soon as they were out of the house.

Mrs. Lehnsherr sighed as she put on some gloves to dig around the dirt to check for vermin and harmful bugs. "No sweetie, I'm not mad about that."

"Then what? You've been tense for a while now." Erik asked with concern as he got a bucket and pulled out some weeds next to her. He'd place the weeds in the bucket to dispose of later.

"Mr. Shaw came looking for you today."

To Erik it felt like ice water had gotten poured into his very bones.

"He came here?! To our home?"

"Oh, heavens no! I doubt Mr. Shaw would get within ten miles of our house. No dearheart, he visited the Hoggin's Inn when I was working there this morning. He said to tell you that he would like to speak to you about an opportunity venture. I-I was scared so I told him I would tell you." Edie Lehnsherr sniffed as tears slowly tracked down her face.

"I know you're an adult and all but you shouldn't be burden with all this bad business. You shouldn't have to spend any time with men like Shaw and his like. He's as bad as they come and will try to drag you down until you become cold and heartless like him and I won't allow that." She said, shame tinged her voice but she spoke with conviction too.

"Mother…" Erik spoke carefully, not wanting to cause her further upset. "I know I'm still young yet but I don't want you to worry about this. I can take care of myself, it's you and grandpa that I worry about. But I'm glad you told me, thank you. Don't you worry though, I'll make sure he doesn't bother you again." Erik said firmly. Anger building up in his blood at the sight of his mother's tears.

Mrs. Lehnsherr looked uncertain but nodded anyway. Erik felt relieved that she seemed more relax now that the burden of Mr. Shaw's words was no longer pressing on her.

Erik fumed to himself as he left late that night when his family had long gone to bed. Shaw hadn't given his mother a time for when he wanted to meet but Erik knew the man after having worked for him for so long. As long as it was creepy and illegal looking then the time was always right.

Erik walked the cold and empty streets, trying to stay in the shadows as he saw unsavory deals being made in corners and alleyways. He had to pass the Xavier Factory to get to one of Shaw's warehouses on the other side of town. It was one of his off the books kind of building where the man liked to make…other kind of deals in the late night.

He slowed down a bit and looked up at the towering factory on the other side of the large wall that blocked it off from the rest of the world.

The factory and its surrounding buildings looked so large even from a distance.

This one factory was easily ten times bigger than of all Shaw's factories and companies combined.

Something that Erik found internally pleasing, if in a vicious kind of way.

The area for the factory spanned several city blocks and actually grew out of the city near the backend. If you saw the factory from above he had no doubt you would see hills and woods along the back of the fenced area while the front was edged into the city to make it easier for trucks to ship out.

Or at least it had made it easier once upon a time when the factory had still been open to the public.

As he passed the giant front gate leading into the factory Erik paused in step.

For a second he could have sworn he saw someone inside the courtyard beyond the steel gate. But that was impossible; no one had ever come in or out of the factory since his grandfather had worked there. It was always a mystery for the citizens of the town on how Mr. Xavier got his candies out without anyone seeing anything at all.

Still…Erik leaned against the bars of the gate and squinted hard in the dim light to see through the gloom of the night.

He could have sworn he saw a shadow of a man at the north end of the courtyard. But looking now he couldn't see anything that would indicate that someone had been there at all.

He was starting to see things that weren't there. Erik snorted at thought, amused despite the situation.

Maybe it was time for a pair of glasses if his eyes were getting bad enough he was jumping at shadows. He remembered that his father would wear glasses for far-sight, his mother probably had then squirreled away somewhere.

He could always ask to borrow them to see if they helped with his vision. Erik turned around after confirming once more no one was there and walked away.

What Erik didn't see since he was already turned away and was walking was the shadow of a man detaching himself from the deep shadows of one of the large pillars. Bright blue eyes shinned with curiosity as they stared after Erik, until he himself was swept away into the shadows of the night.


	4. Chapter 4

It didn't take Erik long after that to make his way into the warehouse and into what defined as Mr. Shaw's office.

The man must have already anticipated that he would come this night as he was sitting in wait for him.

"I hear you have a job for me, sir?" Erik spoke monotonously as he stood in the doorway, not bothering to come in any closer.

His anger had burned down to an ember in the cold of the night. He knew that he would get back at Mr. Shaw for scaring his mother but he also knew that pitching a fit right now would have the opposite effect to what he wanted and could end disastrously for him.

"You've heard correctly Mr. Lehnsherr and if you do this one right, this may be the last one you ever have to do for me." Mr. Shaw spoke unpleasantly.

Erik's eyes narrowed shrewdly as his body became stiff with shock and suspicion. "Last?"

Realizing he needed to speak with further caution he continued his line of questioning. "What kind of job do you have in mind? As you remember I don't mind running your little packages, but I draw the line at anything else other than a smash and grab."

Mr. Shaw waved a dismissive hand in the air, as if illegally breaking and entering was a trivial matter.

"Don't worry I'm not going to have you kill anyone, I have other people for that."

Well that confirmed something for Erik, he had his suspicions that his boss was even more shadier then he had first inspected but he had dared hope it hadn't gone that far. Looks like he'd hoped in vain, if the man was callous enough to talk about murdering someone with such a dismissive attitude.

"No, this is still in your area of expertise. I want you to steal something that will be very valuable to me and my upfront company."

"Right, the candy thing? What could I possibly pinch that would benefit your company?" Erik asked, curious despite the feeling of trepidation.

"I'm sure you've heard all about Xavier's little game? The man's sales have gone over the roof with this little stunt! Not only does that man's company sell more chocolates then mine they even strip me of-!" Mr. Shaw caught himself before he could continue his rant.

It was clear that Mr. Shaw held no love for Mr. Xavier. If Erik read him right he had murder in his eyes as he talked about the chocolatier from the other company.

"What do you want me to do then?" Erik asked aloofly. The only way to deal with Shaw when he was like that was to keep it completely business and not show any emotional response, the guy liked to peck and peel at any sign of distress from the people around him. It was probably one of the reasons why his lower workers had so many accidents.

"You are the best thief in my employment, possibly the best in this whole city. What I want you to do is to break in while Mr. Xavier is preoccupied with this trivial tour of his. On that day with everything that will be happening he'll be so busy with those brats that he won't notice you at all."

"All you need to do is get in and find some of his not yet marketed candy recipes, if you can't find them in the time-limit that this tour gives you then steal some of the prototype candy for my people to analyze. We'll go on the market first with them and he won't have a prayer to stand up to. My ratings will go up the roof and the best of it is that even if he comes out with the same thing it will look like he's the copycat! And he won't be able to sue us for theft because the man never leaves his freaking factory. It's a perfect plan, as long as you don't screw it up."

Erik felt alarm at the very idea of breaking into the heavily fortified factory, that place was sealed up tighter than most military bunkers and possibly the English royal family's estate.

"Hold on, you want me to break into Xavier's Factory? Are you thinking clearly, sir? No one has ever gotten inside or at least lived long enough to tell the tale. I know of a few thieves who have tried and I've never heard of them since. That man's paranoia is even worse than yours! At least you kill those who get in your way, who knows what that crazy man does to his trespassers."

In fact, the Factory was similarly to sovereign soil, what goes in there stays in there. The police force had no jurisdiction once someone passed through the gates. Xavier could literally be some kind of creepy serial killer and no one would ever be able to arrest him as long as he stayed inside the gated walls.

Mr. Shaw scowled, clearly displeased at Erik's concerns. "Yes, I kill those who displease me and don't you forget it. Besides what's worse? Breaking in and taking the slim chance you might get caught and sent to jail or displeasing me and having me kill off your remaining family and yourself?"

Erik locked his jaw, his whole body tensed when Mr. Shaw threatened his family.

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, wouldn't I? You're a smart man, Erik. I know that you'll make the smart decision." Shaw said, confident with himself and his plans.

And what else could Erik do but cooperate? He was fairly confident in his own skills but even he knew breaking into that factory may be the last thing he would be doing in his short life.

"What did you mean that this could be my last job?" He asked instead of confirming his cooperation.

Mr. Shaw grinned widely, it wasn't a pleasant experience.

"I just meant that if you do this for me and succeed then I'll help pay whatever money you need to buy your dear grandfather's medicine and if you make me really happy I'll even help buy you and your family a passage out of here and out into the countryside. Isn't that after all, what you wanted?"

Erik's heart froze in his chest and he could feel his lungs stutter for breath. Several emotions battled inside of him.

Suspicion: how did the man even know about all this? His ill grandfather, Erik's dream about taking his family and moving out into the countryside?

Happiness: the idea that if he pulled it all off Erik would be able to get his grandfather's meds and maybe a real home someplace new and without the polluting cold of the city.

Anger: That his dreams were being used against him.

Fear: To break into the unbreakable and risk everything he already had.

"I accept. But only if you keep your end of the bargain." Erik demanded.

An even more creepy smile lit up Mr. Shaw's face, his arms spread as if to show how harmless he was but Erik knew better, probably more than anyone currently alive.

"Of course, I'm a man of my word after all."

For some reason, Erik couldn't get the feeling of being sullied inside and out after he left to go back home after hashing out the deal for what felt like the entire night.

It was like his very soul had been touched by sludge.

It wasn't a good feeling at all and it took Erik reminding himself constantly of all the pros of the job to stop himself from going back and calling the whole thing off, even if it would possibly get him and his family killed by his angry boss.


	5. Chapter 5

**"** **We're here at the house of Miss Angel Salvadore from California, this lucky young lady is the winner of the second golden ticket! In the whole wide world, Miss Salvadore defeated the odds and managed to find that lucky golden one. Mr. Salvadore, any words for the viewers about your daughter and her incredible luck?"**

A male reporter pressed the mike to an older looking man, next to him were two young women.

It was kind of hard to tell which one was his wife and which one was his daughter, as both of them seemed to be around the same age.

The thin blonde haired woman that stood next to Mr. Salvadore smiled plastically at the cameras, her eyes devoid of any real thought as she stood there stiffly. She wore a plain and simple dress with only a touch of makeup to her face.

In contrast to her, the other woman was darker in skin tone and had a full mane of lovely black hair. A skin-tight dress clung to her figure, added with her heavy make-up it gave her the air of a party goer. She smiled coyly at the camera, moving her body around suggestively whenever the camera panned to her.

 **"** **Well yes, as soon as I heard that my lovely daughter wanted one of these tickets, I just had to get it for her. I'm in the pharmaceutical industry you see. So the other day I told all my lady workers that instead of shelling pills they'd be opening up Xavier Chocolate bars instead. I bought boxes of the thousands, tens of thousands, three days passed and my little girl still didn't have her golden ticket. It was terrible, she was most distressed over it."**

The heavy-set man waved his thick hands, trying to showcase how upset his teenage daughter had been.

 **"** **Finally, one was found in a chocolate something or other bar. Angel was so overjoyed!"**

The reporter smiled nervously. He looked between the two women, it was clear he was trying to decide which one was Angel Salvadore.

 **"** **Ah that's wonderful, so Miss Salvadore. What are your views on winning the main prize?"**

The darker haired woman suddenly spoke in a smoky voice. It was clear that she was trying to sound seductive but in reality it just sounded like she was getting over a nasty cough.

 **"** **The winner will be me of course, after all I am the best there is out there. It'll be me who wins this mysterious surprise, have no doubt."**

An ugly looking sneer grew on her face, as if the thought that someone out there didn't believe her. The other woman noticed and nudged her in the side. Angel's sneer melted off her face as she pouted in a trained cute manner.

 **"…** **Well folks you hear it! There are now three golden tickets left in this world. Who will those lucky be?"**

"What a beastly little slut."

"ERIK!"

"What? Come on mother, you were thinking the same thing, what is it with all these kinds of people winning the tickets?" Erik spoke, disgruntled. At least someone normal should get one of the tickets. "It wasn't even her who found it, so why should she qualify?" His grandfather nodded his head in agreement.

"They won't get along with Mr. Xavier that's for sure." Grandpa Joe commented absently.

"There will be no more talk like that, you both hear me?" Mrs. Lehnsherr demanded.

"Yes madam." Erik and his grandfather said simultaneously.

Mrs. Lehnsherr hummed in disapproval before getting up from her spot on the bed.

As she walked away grandpa Joe smiled and winked conspiringly like to Erik. Erik couldn't help but smiled back. He loved his grandpa's more devilish side, it was fun to tease his mother when his grandpa backed him up.

"So Erik, have you bought yourself a chocolate bar yet?" Grandpa Joe questioned.

"No, I don't see the point in wasting my money like that. Why would I buy a bar when the likelihood of me actually finding a ticket is slim to none? I have more of a chance of spontaneously getting rich and marrying well."

Erik's grandfather snorted humorlessly. "My dear boy you sell yourself way to short. You're a fine, strapping young man with a heart of gold! You'll find yourself a nice lass soon and settle down nicely. And you never know maybe that one golden ticket will find you." Grandpa Joe winked again.

Erik laughed at his grandfather's optimism and got up as well when the news began reruns of the same thing. "That'll be the day huh? Well I'm off, I got a few errands to run so I'll be home late again. You don't bother mom you hear?" Erik teased back.

"Ah running errands for Bill? That's a good lad."

"Ah? Yes…Mr. S. See you later then." Erik quickly walked off before his grandfather could ask anything more about Mr. Solomon.

It was hard for Erik to lie to his grandfather so he did it as little as possible, it was easier to avoid a subject then it was to create a lie.

Erik put on his ratty old tweed jacket and faded red scarf. The air was just beginning to become chilly and a new wave of snow had hit the night before, covering the roads and buildings.

Erik shivered a bit as he tracked through the snow. His shoes weren't the best for the winter months and had a bad habit of letting in water to soak his socks.

Mr. Shaw had become strangely lenient ever since Erik had agreed to break into Mr. Xavier's factory. Erik was allowed to take the rest of the time off until the big day, more time to practice his trade, Mr. Shaw had said smugly.

Erik rolled his eyes as he slinked off into the emptier part of town. This area was less business and residential and more warehouses and empty lots.

Erik walked until he was a good distance away from one of the warehouses.

This particular warehouse belonged to a Miss Emma Frost of Frost Ice Creams. An old rival of Mr. Shaw's, rumor was that they use to be friends and lovers but a disagreement about their companies had led to a bitter break up.

Erik wasn't going to steal anything worthwhile. He didn't need anyone hunting him down right now or anything. No, he just needed practice breaking inside a building with a higher sense of security then his usual haunts.

Stealing once he was already inside was always relatively easy, he'd gotten to be quite the pickpocket before Mr. Shaw had picked him up and Mr. Solomon had offered him that corner to earn a quick penny or two for his family. It was the breaking inside bit that was difficult.

Staying in the surrounding buildings shadows he scouted the area. There wasn't much of the way of guards. Only two from what he could see and they were only protecting the front gate without giving other areas a look around. It seemed Miss Frost wasn't concerned that a thief would actually have the balls to try to steal from her in broad daylight. Erik already knew that she tightened security later in the night. He'd scouted the night before and there had been a total of six diligent guards patrolling the whole area.

It was always nice to be underestimated. Erik smirked to himself as he walked away.

He wouldn't be taking the front entrance even if one of the guards was asleep and the other looked bored to death. There was a chance that they'd see him and remember his face. He couldn't afford to get careless, not now.

Erik took a roundabout way towards the back of the warehouse, making sure to stay out of sight from anyone curious enough to wonder why he was in this part of town.

There was a tall building right behind the warehouse, it might have once been an apartment building a long time ago but now it was just a health hazard. Erik made his way inside, stepping carefully around the rotten floorboards and debris that littered the floor.

Making his way to the third floor he went into one of the south facing rooms. Walking towards a window he saw that it looked right over the backend of the warehouse, just as he had planned.

Making sure that his scarf covered the lower part of his face he leaned out the window and calculated the jump. It would be tight and he'd have to make sure that he rolled correctly or he'd dislocate his shoulder.

Oh well, no time like the present. Erik sent a quick pray to any wandering deities that wanted to listen before bracing himself and jumping out of the window. Powering himself forward with his long legs.

It took a lot of self-control not to automatically yell out as the roof of the warehouse loomed closer.

His feet hit the concrete roof and he quickly rolled to absorb the impact. Once his momentum had stopped he stood unsteadily to his feet, moving his limbs around to see if anything had broken. Once he was sure that nothing was sprained and all he had was a few bruises he looked around to see if his landing had caused a commotion. He crouched down and crept to the side of the building to look around.

After a few minutes of there being no sign of alarm he got up and walked carefully towards one of the skylights.

Peering down he saw that the warehouse was filled with lots of boxes and freezer units. That made sense, Miss Emma mostly marketed ice cream products and cold served snacks.

Now which way would be easiest to enter, dropping down from the skylight onto one of the towering wooden cartons or finding a door and stairs?

Erik hadn't brought anything other than his lock picks. If he had a coral of rope he'd have tried going down from the light but since he didn't he'd have to chance using the roof doorway and hope that it wasn't wired to an internal alarm.

Not the most prepared but that wasn't why he was doing this, he wasn't stealing from Frost Inc because he wanted something, he was training his own skills. You never know when you have to break in or out of somewhere and having nothing but your own hands to guild you.

Craftily making his way to the door Erik looked around the edges for any trip wires. Not seeing any he tried the handle, which turned out to be locked.

Not discourage at the least he reached inside his jacket for his lock pick bag, shifting around the different sizes he picked out two and got to work picking the lock.

In no time at all he was walking down the stairs to the next level, making sure not to make any more noise than he absolutely had too.

Erik had picked out this warehouse out of all the others because it was the least likely to be visited by the big boss. There was no way Erik wanted to meet Miss Frost in person, not after hearing the rumors that she was just as cruel and shrewd as Mr. Shaw but in a tight dress.

Once Erik got to the second floor he walked out onto the catwalk that overlooked most of the warehouse, staring down at the merchandise he crouched low to think.

What could he take? He didn't want to open any of the crates. He never had much love for ice cream even when he had been a child and had been allowed to taste free samples at school. Besides it would be hard to keep the ice cream from melting in his coat as he made his exit.

If he wasn't going to steal the goodies then what should he take? Because even though he hadn't planned on taking anything before the itch to take something now that he was inside was crawling up his back, it had been almost too easy to make his way inside the building. He needed some kind of challenge to stop the itch.

Erik made sure to keep an eye out as he crept along the catwalk. Most of the lights were off except for a few emergency ones so there wasn't much light to see by only what came from the skylight.

As he got to the end of a section he saw a ladder heading to the floor underneath him. Erik looked at it and debated internally for a moment before shrugging to himself and making his way down.

It surprised him when it didn't take him to the floor below but to a smaller catwalk nearer the ground along the wall that had been hidden from his view before.

Looking forward he saw that there was a total of three doors along the wall leading to who knows where. Making his way to one of them he opened it cautiously and saw that it was a small office, cluttered with papers and trash. Closing that door he went to the next one, which was some kind of supply closet, it was mostly void of cleaning products though.

As he was walking to the last one he heard a commotion near the front entrance of the building. Trying to make himself smaller he tiptoed nearer the edge to see what was going on below.

Erik felt his eyes widen as he caught sight of Miss Frost and three other men entering the building.

But why? Erik had scouted this building before and determined that she never came here herself since it was one of the smaller less important warehouses that she owned. Out of all times for her to visit it just had to be on the day he decided to come as well.

Erik swore silently and moved back quickly as he caught sight of them walking towards the small staircase that would take them to the catwalk he was standing on. Moving quickly, he walked backwards towards the offices and the ladder leading up to the larger catwalk above him where he could escape from the roof.

As he was backtracking he noticed with a rising feeling of panic that he wouldn't make it to the ladder before they noticed him, Miss Frost was moving fast and with purpose.

He couldn't get caught, no freaking way. Not like this, he couldn't handle the humiliation of Miss Frost contacting Mr. Shaw about this.

Erik made to go into the closet space but found himself suddenly inside the office he'd peeked into earlier. He'd opened the wrong door while he'd been internally panicking, a rookie mistake that hopefully wouldn't cost him.

He hadn't the time to scold himself so he just looked around quickly for a hiding place. He couldn't be sure that they'd go into this room but he'd rather hide for no reason than to get caught out in the open.

But try as he might Erik couldn't find a single place to hide, the curtains were too short and the underneath of the computer desk wouldn't fit him. The room was very small and there wasn't a single place to hide.

Erik felt as strange mixture of panic and numbness. He startled as he heard voices close by. Not thinking about it he headed to the window, opening it he saw that it was a clear drop two floors down.

He hesitated for a moment, if he dropped now it was likely that he'd break something and alert the guards. If he just gave himself up now than at least he wouldn't suffer any broken bones, at least not at first. It was possible that Miss Frost would order her men to break them for him.

"No James, not Vegas. I said Vermont." Miss Frost's voice sounded from right outside the door.

He didn't have the time to think about it anymore, Erik lifted his feet and sat on the window seal and carefully but quickly turned around until his front was facing the room, using the muscles in his back and arms he let himself go out of the window so that only his arms kept him from falling.

Breathing harshly Erik hung in wait, he couldn't close the window behind him but maybe if no one noticed he could hang here until they all left. His fingers were barely visible and only if the person was standing right against the window would anyone see them.

He couldn't look behind or above him and he didn't have the courage to look down. Erik felt his muscles began to strain themselves from holding his full weight.

His breath caught in his throat as he heard the door to the office open and the voices became loud and clear.

"You heard me Christophe I want ears and eyes on those brats. This whole ordeal of these so called golden tickets are making sales drop! I'm not happy about that and if I'm not happy no one is you hear me? I want this fixed!" Miss Frost's cold voice shook venomously.

"I know I'm not the only rival company of Xavier's to think this. I'm sure that the others already have plans in motion. I won't be left in the dust, so you know the drill. I want one of those brats on my side. Find one who we can use and either blackmail the little shit or pay him or her off to tell us Xavier's secrets. I'm sure it won't be too difficult for the three of you. Use whatever means necessary, but just make sure that my name isn't mentioned. I don't need any bad publicity if it gets out somehow."

"Of course, madam it will be done as you ordered." One of the men answered.

"Just make sure it is. I'll be in the main offices, don't bother me until you have some good news for me." Miss Frost said darkly as the sound of papers shuffling and being picked up, as well as a few more topics were brushed on in quick conversation before everything went quiet again.

Erik waited for a long moment after that, he didn't hear anymore talking but neither did he hear them leave. The some sound of papers shuffling continued for a while more so it would be safe to say that they were mostly still in the room.

"Hey Mike, did Miss Frost open this window?"

Erik felt his blood freeze in his veins.

"I don't know, does it matter? Just close the damn thing so we can go Chris."

"Fine. Hey James after this you want to grab a burger?"

"Sure."

Shit, he didn't have time to think of a way out of this without alerting them to his presence.

One of the men walked towards the window and closed it, not looking down or even noticing that he'd just sort of crushed Erik's fingers.

Erik pursed his lips tightly together, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in and out quickly while being in a great deal of pain. His face turned beat red as he barely kept himself from screaming out loud.

Finally, after an agonizing moment he heard the door open and close. The sounds of voices and paper shuffling long gone.

Pulling his upper body up he groaned as he saw that his poor fingers were under the window panel. It hurt like hell and Erik accidently bit through his lip as the pain mounted but he managed to nudge the window open enough to free his hands.

What he hadn't counted on was that without the window holding his crushed fingers he wouldn't be able to hold himself up anymore. As soon as his fingers were free he felt himself slip backwards.

"Argh!" He couldn't help but let out a small yelp as he fell down. The wind catching his scarf and coat, causing them to flutter in the air. He waited for the impact of the hard ground, swearing fiercely at his stupidly, if this impact didn't kill him he would kick his own ass later.

What he'd failed to noticed the first time he looked out the window was the rather large garbage crate that was directly below the window on the street.

Erik felt his back impact the squishy trash bags filled with papers, waste and melted ice cream.

"Ooaf!" His breath escaped him in a harsh exhale, the top of the trash bin which had been leaning back against the wall vibrated and closed after his fall, making it dark.

"Great just freaking fucking fantastic." Erik fumed angrily. He couldn't see his fingers but they throbbed something terrible.

If he couldn't even break into a usually empty warehouse without getting hurt and almost caught then what hope did he have in breaking in to Charles Xavier's Factory?


	6. Chapter 6

It was late by the time he made it back home. He could hear the television in the background but the soft singing of his mother drowned out the noise easily. Normally such a thing would warm his heart but right now he just wanted to crawl into his bed without anyone seeing him and pass out from the pain and exhaustion that filled his body.

"Erik there you are! It seems that they've found another one- what happened to your fingers?!" Mrs. Lehnsherr screeched in distress as she noticed her son's fingers.

Erik winced, chastising himself for forgetting to hide them. He tried to hide his hands behind his back but by then it was already too late.

"It's nothing mother, just a small accident. I'm fine." Erik tried to reassure her but his mother would have none of that.

"Nonsense, give me your hands young man!" His mother put her hands on her hips and stared him down.

Erik tried to wait it out but he was cold and in pain so finally he nodded tiredly and walked towards her, showing her his hands.

"Oh darling." She said sadly. All of the tips of Erik's fingers were black and purple, some of his nails were gone, haven fallen out while he was walking home.

It seems that they'd been crushed beyond saving. Dried blood was crusted along the cubicles, not to mention the tenderness of his fragile finger bones, if they weren't crush then they were definitely cracked.

She babied him for a while after that, getting into their small stash of bandages and cleaning the wounds with boiling water before smoothing the burn with cooler water then wrapping them tightly. He declined any kind of pain reliever, those were for his grandfather and he didn't really need them anyway.

He'd gotten use to the pain and as long as they were tightly wrapped up they'd heal in no time as long as they didn't get infected. He'd been in luck too, when his mother had inspected them she had told him that she didn't believe that they were broken, maybe a little fractured and bruised beyond measure but as long as he was careful he should get full mobility once healed.

"What was it you were trying to tell me earlier?" Erik asked his mother after his hands were taken care of.

"Hmm? Oh that, the third golden ticket was found this just a few hours ago." She told him, the excitement about the news damped due to his injury.

"Already? Does grandfather know yet?" Erik asked, looking at where his grandfather was snoring, soundly asleep in his bed.

"Not yet, I only know because Mrs. Graham from down the street came over to borrow my knitting needles and told me. I was just going to wake your grandfather up to watch the TV. See what the news is saying about this one, I was just waiting up for you, I know how much your grandfather likes watching it with you."

"Should you wake him? He needs his rest." Erik asked, hesitant to disturb his grandfather who looked like he was having a peaceful sleep for once.

"Do you want to be the one to tell him when he wakes up on his own that we didn't wake him up to watch the evening news about the tickets?" She said dryly.

Erik thought about it for a moment then shuddered. "Ah no."

"I thought not." She snorted in amusement before walking towards the bed to gently shake the older man up.

Erik smiled at his family and went over as well to lean against the bed. It wasn't long before his grandpa was up and wide awake with the news of another ticket being found. Edie turned the dial on the television set as the news began to do a rerun.

 **"** **The third ticket has been found! Yes, you heard me right people, the third ticket has been found! The third lucky member of the golden five is none other than Raven Darkholme a twenty-year-old sports prodigal! Miss Darkholme why don't you tell us something about yourself?"**

A beautiful young woman stood proudly in a dark blue sweat suit in a bleached white house, surrounded by dozens of trophies that lined the shelves around her and her Botox faced mother and father at her side.

 **"** **I'm a black belt in three martial arts and the captain of the local basketball team, soccer team, track team and swim team, but that's just some hobbies I have. Right now I'm breaking the world's record in gum chewing. But when I heard about these ticket things I lay off the gum for a while and switched to candy bars. Anyway see this trophy? I'm the raging champion for five years in gum chewing, this piece of gum here? I've been working on for four solid months, that's a world record."**

 **"** **All this talk about someone wining a main prize? Well I don't care about those other kids, that winner? That person's going to be me!"**

Raven smiled at the camera as she held up her ticket for the cameras. She was chewing loudly on a piece of gum. Not seeming to care about how annoying the noise was to the other people in the room. Her teeth were big and white, clearly, they've been worked on extensively.

 **"** **Tell them why Raven."** Raven's mother's eyes were obsessed as they stared down at her daughter. Raven didn't seem to notice it but it sent chills down both the reporters backs and all the viewers.

 **"** **Because I'm a winner, all those others with the tickets? They don't stand a chance."**

 **"** **Well you heard it people, there are now two tickets left in the world, sales for Xavier's chocolates have reached a fanatical high. Who will be the next lucky winner?"**

"Just two tickets left in the world." Grandpa Joe stated sadly as he stared at the third uncaring child that had somehow gotten something that millions of other would have joyously celebrated.

Erik just patted his grandfather's back and got up to help his mother start dinner that night. Not that she needed much help, tonight was cabbage stew again since they'd finished the last of the carrot the night before. At least they were consistent, those cabbages.


	7. Chapter 7

It was the very next day when news of the fourth ticket being found reached Erik and his family.

"Those tickets are really being found fast." Mrs. Lehnsherr commented, amusement clear in her voice.

Erik had gotten back from a long day of shining shoes and helping Mr. S with some heavy stocking. Business tend to grow slow in the winter months because everyone starts to wear boats instead of leather loafers. Not to mention that with his fingers bandaged to all hell it was hard to maintain the brush, so he ended up losing business with his painful fumbling.

"Well what do you expect? To be able to enter Mr. Xavier's factory after all these years…it's amazing. Everyone wants that opportunity." Grandpa Joe said dully.

Erik wasn't fooled though, he knew that his grandfather wished that he himself could go. But it was impossible, even if by some miracle, he'd found a ticket he wouldn't be able to go because his legs were so wasted away that even walking a few steps was agony.

"Who is it this time?" Erik asked.

Mrs. Lehnsherr went around and wacked the set a few times so that the picture would come back instead of the weird static channel it had been on since last night. After a few hits the screen was back even if there was some light static. It took them a few more minutes to find the news station.

 **"** **Hello fans! Well you've heard it first here! The fourth golden ticket has been found! We're in the house of Alex Summers, the lucky winner of the fourth ticket.**

The camera panned to an older teen sitting in front of a huge screen TV, he was holding a game console controller and seemed to be ignoring the reporters.

You could see the reporter frowning at the kid. Clearly, he was annoyed by being ignored. So, he ended up turning his attention to the older looking man standing near the couch, looking completely bored out of his mind.

 **"** **Mr. Summers! Why don't you tell us your thoughts about this exhilarating moment for you and your son?"**

 **"** **What for? I don't know a damn thing about what this is about. Is the little bastard in trouble again? Last time we had you leeches over was when Alex hacked the pentagon. Why don't you vultures just leave me out of this!"**

The man stormed off screen, you could hear the clanking of glass bottles echoing faintly in the background. The reporter looked speechless at the man's utter rudeness.

Alex finally paused his game and stared at them, a dull, bored look upon his face.

 **"** **Look just ignore the old man okay? It was easy enough to hack into the shipments and calculate which one had the ticket. In the end, I only had to buy one candy bar."**

 **"** **And how did it taste?"**

 **"** **How should I know? I'm allergic to the damn things!"**

"Well it's a good thing then that you're going to a chocolate factory you little shit!"

Erik's mother smacked him upside the head before he could continue his rant.

"What?!"

She just sent him the _look_ which had him flushing, ashamed at his display of anger.

"Sorry mother."

Grandpa Joe just watched them silently, a sad gleam in his eyes. He'd been getting steadily worse as winter began to fully set in and it seemed that all this excitement about Xavier's factory was getting to him as well.

Earlier today Erik had gone out and purchase some tea with his savings to try to halt the rough cough that plagued his grandfather since the previous night.

So not only was his grandfather wasting away from his illness he now seemed to have acquired a cold.

Erik could feel the familiar burn of anger deep inside of him, burning like a large fire in his chest. It seemed that the anger was the only thing that keep him warm anymore. Even his family's smiles could only bring a small warmth to his chest nowadays. Maybe it was the stress of the large job that Mr. Shaw had given him and his grandfather's health but Erik was getting tired of only feeling angry all the time.

It may also have been the overly creaky and uneven floorboards and the badly patched roof that leaked even in a misty rain. He would love to fix the whole house up, keep it more insulated from the cold outside but even if he had the time to salvage the goods from junkyards he didn't have any practical knowledge of how to do such a large project.

Currently his mother was knitting a quilt for Joe with some used materials she had begged off from some people over the past few months or salvaging whenever she saw someone throwing out old and motheaten cloth. It made Erik's blood boil to think of his mother having to beg at all but he knew he couldn't say anything to her about it.

Just as she didn't question him about his work for Shaw he couldn't question her about what she did at times in order to try to bring in materials to patch their clothing.

"Erik, come here." Grandpa Joe patted the spot next to him, Erik walked obediently over and sat down lightly, after Erik was comfortably stationed his grandfather pulled something out from under his pillow.

"Grandfather?"

"Here, I want you to take this, I've been saving it for a long time and I can't think of a better way to spend it. I want you to run to the nearest store and buy a Xavier bar." Grandpa Joe handed a confused Erik a silver dollar.

"What? But grandfather, this is your money. I can't take it." Erik tried to give it back but his grandfather was having none of it

"No buts! Please do this for an old man, I know I don't have much time left in this world but by the gods I will give this thing a good old Lehnsherr try! Now go out there and bring back the chocolate, we can all share it if you still feel guilty."

Erik had gotten up and was out the door before he even realized what he'd done.

He looked at the small coin in his hand and sighed in defeat. Maybe ten years ago it would have bought a chocolate bar but nowadays chocolate sales have gone up, especially Xavier's chocolates.

It would take a bit more than a dollar to buy a Xavier bar for his grandfather and he didn't really see the point of it all.

But it seemed to matter to his grandfather so he'd go to the store and use a small bit of his own money to get a bar for him.

He placed the coin loyally in his pocket and set out to the nearest corner mart.

When he got back to the house he saw that grandpa Joe had fallen asleep while waiting for him.

He paused in thought, he could always come back when his grandfather was awake to give him the candy bar but he knew that grandpa Joe would be disappointed in him if he didn't wake him up immediately.

Not that this Xavier bar would have a ticket in it. Erik didn't believe in getting your hopes up only for them to be dashed horribly. He was a realist that way while his grandfather was a dreamer.

It was something that his mother and grandfather mourned because apparently as a child he had quite the imagination before the death of his father.

Walking forward he carefully and gently shook his grandfather's shoulder.

"Grandfather? Wake up." Erik spoke softly.

"Hmm?" Joe woke up groggy, his eyes fogged with sleep.

"You feel asleep."

"Oh, did you get it?" Grandpa Joe asked excitedly once he'd woken up properly.

"I did, now grandfather you mustn't be too disappointed if you don't get it." Erik said firmly.

"I know, now open it."

"But I thought you wanted it?" Erik tried to hand the bar of chocolate to his grandfather but the old man just pushed it back firmly in his direction.

"No, it wasn't for me, I wanted you to have it. You haven't had any chocolate since your younger years. So now's your chance to indulge in childhood fancy." Grandpa Joe said with conviction and a spark in his eyes.

"Grandfather." Erik felt stunned, he could feel the sharp sting of tears burn eyes but he refused to let them fall. He looked down at the bar in his hands, it wasn't just a bar of chocolate, his grandfather wanted him to regain something that he had once lost.

Realistically Erik knew better but that didn't stop the slight shake of his hands as he ripped the paper and foil off the chocolate bar.

In truth, it wasn't like he was expecting to see the golden tint of a golden ticket but even so, Erik couldn't explain the pain in his chest when he saw the plain chocolate bar was inside the foil.

"Oh well then…I guess that's that." Grandpa Joe said resignedly.

Erik looked up at his grandfather who was just staring at him with warm eyes and before he knew it he'd dropped the bar on the quilt and was leaning forward.

Joe seemed to realize what he needed because he wrapped Erik into a big hug, whispering smoothing words into Erik's hair as he clung to his grandfather.

He didn't know why he was so disappointed, there was a reason why he didn't believe in the impossible anymore, since it only caused him to feel like this.

He'd long ago stopped letting life disappointed him.

He knew now that he must have been harboring some foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, life could have given him something nice. It crushed something fragile in him to have that hope extinguished.

Erik stayed in his grandfather's arms until well after the chocolate melted and became practically uneatable. But that was okay, Erik didn't think he could have stomached it without throwing up.


	8. Chapter 8

"Have you heard?"

Erik was feeling a sense of déjà-vu as he passed a pair of gossiping ladies on the sidewalk.

Two days had passed since the chocolate incident with his grandfather. Erik had managed to pull himself together before his mother arrived home so she hadn't known about Erik's little…moment of weakness.

He didn't mind so much about appearing weak in front of his grandfather since grandpa Joe understood Erik more than Erik understood himself at times.

But Erik wouldn't let himself appear anything other than strong for his mother. To be anything else in her eyes would make him feel like a disappointment, which was something that Erik wouldn't allow by any means necessary.

"Yes! They say that the last golden ticket was found by some old geezer in Russia. Can you believe it? It's already over, I'm so jealous of those five." The other woman gossiped, envy clear in her voice.

Numbness spread over his body as disbelief set in. It was over? All the tickets had been found?

Already?

Why did this affect him so? It wasn't like he had any chance in finding one of those tickets himself. He hadn't even bought any chocolates except for that one time.

Maybe it was because it was finally time to figure out a plan of action in how he was going to break into the factory by himself.

But even so, it wasn't fear so much as disappointment that he felt.

It wasn't like he really wanted to go anyway, it didn't matter that he'd spent most of his younger years listening to his grandfather's tales of how magical and wonderful Mr. Xavier was and how his factory was filled with wonders and magic.

It didn't matter that he use to dream of meeting the legendary man himself and hearing first hand all the wonders that his grandfather had experience.

He was an adult now and didn't have time to think of long dead dreams that he hadn't even thought of for years.

But this whole damned golden ticket craze had brought all those old and dusty feelings that he'd buried long ago and it was driving him crazy.

He had responsibilities and no time for such nonsense to infect his day by day living.

Erik walked down the street with his eyes facing downward, ignoring all the people around him.

He tried to warm the cold feeling inside of him by thinking about the medicine Mr. Shaw would pay him for him once he'd got his hands on some of Xavier's hidden receipts. It would be soon, since the last ticket had been found.

Any day now the man would announce the day that those five people could go beyond the gates and through the doors of the factory.

Lost in thought, it was only because he was looking down that he saw it, a piece of paper stuck in a dirty pile of snow along the wall of a building.

Bending down out of curiosity he pulled it free of the frozen slush and felt shock freeze him.

It was currency, a twenty-dollar bill. Other then it being wet and a little ripped on one corner it was in good condition.

Erik held it in his hands, the feeling of wet paper chilling his gloveless fingers and turning them pink with cold. Looking up he turned his head around to see if anyone had stopped to pat their pockets for the lost bill but everyone was moving along, not sparing him more than a glare or two for stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

He could see a small corner shop across the street, a small crowd in front of it as people bought the latest edition of the evening newspaper.

Erik didn't know why but he suddenly found himself walking across the road and entering the small shop, moving gracefully around the people milling about in groups, he ignored their voices as he walked to the counter.

The shop keeper stood behind the cashier and looked up at Erik expectedly, waiting on him to announce his purchase.

"One Xavier delectable dark chocolate delight, please." Erik asked politely as he handed the bill over and got several smaller bills back in change. The owner reached behind him and picked up the first bar in the line before handing it over.

Thanking the man Erik opened it up absently as the voices of the people around him grew in volume, he listened with half an ear as one woman next to him began to complain about something in the evening newspaper.

"Can you believe it? It's crazy how far some people would go." She complained loudly and got several nods of agreement from others who had the paper in hand.

If she had anything else to say Erik didn't hear it since his eyes were locked on his hands, to be more specific they were locked on the chocolate bar.

His body began to feel numb as a sense of disbelief and shock coursed through him.

Nested in the paper and chocolate was a shining piece of golden foil. He pulled the golden ticket from the chocolate, noting absently that the chocolate hadn't smudged the paper at all, it wasn't even creased despite being folded over and over again to fit in the small space.

The shop keeper was the first person to notice what Erik had in his hand and he wasn't subtle about it.

"You've found Mr. Xavier's last golden ticket! I can't believe it was in my shop." The man proclaimed in excitement.

Erik looked up sharply and noticed that all the customers in the small store had stopped talking and were now staring at him with greed in their eyes.

Before they could jump him or make outrageous offers Erik pushed his way out of the shop and sprinted away, clenching tightly to the ticket as the shouts behind him faded the further he got away.

He sprinted as fast as he could, barely managing to avoid running into anyone.

It was only as he saw his house ahead of him that this mind began to finally catch up to his body.

His lungs felt like they were burning with the need for air and his legs strained with the pain of pushing them too hard but he ignored all that and pushed open the front door with a loud bang.

As soon as he saw his mother and grandfather it all came crashing down on him.

"I have it, I've got the last golden ticket!" Erik blurted out to the bafflement of his family.

"Erik, what on earth are you talking about?" His mother asked as he came forward and placed a cool hand on his burning and sweaty forehead.

"Look." He lifted the ticket up and waved it in the air. "There's writing on it I think." Erik said excitably as he lifted the ticket up closer to his eyes to read out loud.

 **Dear lucky winner of this golden ticket, it is my pleasure to welcome you into my factory on February 1** **st** **at 10 am, sharp.**

 **You and four other lucky winners will meet at the front gates, where you will enter and be greeted by me personally. For an entire day you all will be shown things that will overcome even your wildest imagination. I look forward to meeting you.**

 **Sincerely Mr. Xavier**

"Erik!" Joe cried from the bed, a tearful expression of pride shown through his eyes. "Oh my boy…"

Erik's mother stood in front of him, a sincere expression on her face as her son and she shared matching smiles.

It had been a long time since Erik's family had seen such a look of wonderment and excitement on his face.

As the night wore on and they continued to celebrate their good fortunes Erik felt something like happiness well up inside his chest, and for a moment he forgot about how Shaw and his evil plans for both Mr. Xavier and his company.


	9. Chapter 9

Luckily for Erik, he'd found the ticket barely a day before the due date. So instead of having the media camp out in front of his house like a pack of vultures he'd gotten away with not saying anything at all. Instead he decided to just show up right before they were to go past the gates.

His mother and grandfather couldn't make it to see him off unfortunately.

But it was for the best since the large crowd of people assembled out in front of the factory looked more like an out of control mob than anything else.

He knew that his grandfather was disappointed since he couldn't be out here standing in front of the gates with everyone else. To watch as his grandson walk through the gates that had been closed for so long, but with the state of his legs as they were it wouldn't have been advisable even if there had been less plushy people around.

Maneuvering his way through the small gaps in the crowd he ignored the buzz of conversations from different sources as people speculated on who the mysterious final winner of the last golden ticket was. It had come out on the previous evening news that the man in Russia had tried to pass of a forgery as a real golden ticket and that some lucky young man from the very city that the factory resided in had found the last ticket instead.

Luckily for Erik no one had recognized him in that small corner shop yesterday, so he was still anonymous for now.

Making his way towards the small corralled area where the other four winners stood in place he pulled out his ticket for validation.

After a whole song and danced for the officials, he was finally able to join the others in line. He made sure to ignore the reporters and officials that were throwing question after question at his face.

As he stood there at the end of the lineup he felt relief when after only a long, hard stare the others left him alone.

Looking down at his old wrist watch he squinted through the sun glare to check the time.

10:00

Show time then.

As if in accordance to his thoughts the gates gave a loud creak as they opened by themselves, startling everyone into a hushed silence.

"Will the five winners please walk forward." A crackling voice echoed over a hidden loud speaker.

Erik took a deep breath, letting it out slowly he followed the others. It was surreal in a way, to walk through the gates he'd passed right by for years now.

"The gates will now be closing, thank you everyone who showed up for today's events. Have a good day." Once again, the voice echoed in the open air.

It was hard to characterize the voice because of the static sound that buzzed in the background but to Erik the voice sounded young and male.

The two other boys pushed on ahead, elbowing the girls rudely and jeering.

Erik looked at them and tried to connect their names and faces from what he could remember from the news over the past few weeks.

"Ugly brutes." The dark-haired woman sneered unattractively and wiped away some imaginary dirt off her bare shoulder. Erik felt uncomfortable just looking at her, since she was wearing less clothing then he felt was decent for a girl her age. Although that may just be his mother's way of thinking invading his own thoughts.

A strapless tube top and mini skirt with fishnet leggings and boots. Erik felt his face blush as he turned away from her to inspect the others, he would do well to stay away from that one, she had the look of a women on the prowl and he wanted no part of that.

Let one of the other boys fall prey to that.

The blonde-haired women narrowed her eyes at him, in a way that caused a shiver of alarm to course through Erik's body, unlike the other girl this one was in a blue track suit with her hair pulled in a tight pony-tail. It was her eyes that gave him pause though, a feeling of danger echoed through them and he made a vow then and there that he wouldn't cross these girls if he could help it, girls were vicious when they wanted to cause you imaginable horror as his mother taught him.

It was a quick walk to the large factory doors, Erik could still hear the crowd behind him but he declined to turn around. He'd rather the reporters not get a good look at him since he was still contracted to Mr. Shaw and had a job to do even with this once in a lifetime opportunity.

His lips turned down into a scowl at the thought of the other man.

"Now then, before we meet. I'd like you to enjoy a little song and dance that I've composed for you all."

Erik felt the small space above his left eye twitch as section of the front wall slide away and reveled a small stage of brightly painted puppets.

"Holy fuck…" One of the boys whispered loudly. Clearly as horrified and amused as the rest of them as the puppets began to dance and sing in sync.

"Charles Xavier! Charles Xavier! The amazing Chocolatier of this age. Charles Xavier! Charles Xavier! Everybody give us three cheers!" To everyone's continued horror, the dolls mouths began to move to the words.

The last sentence repeated three times before the short red headed boy caught on and gave three quick cheers to the amusement of the others.

"He's modest, clever and so smart! He barely can restrain it! With so much generosity, there's no way to contain it, to contain it!"

Erik sniggered at the egoist personal theme song. This was not what he expected, things had already gone sideways and passed weird and he hadn't even stepped inside yet. Luckily for him his grandfather had warned him that Mr. Xavier may pull something like this, since the man himself was exceptional to say the last.

"Holy fucktard, what is all this." the redhead boy whispered loudly. Erik really needed to remember what their names were before he made an ass out himself. At least he could take pleasure in that no one knew his name.

As the song finally ended the dolls moved aside and an empty chair rose up from a trapdoor under the floor. A host of sparklers began to shoot out around the puppets.

Which had them catching on fire. Erik closed his eyes as the smell of burning plastic filled the air.

"Wicked." The other boy smirked as the dolls continued to burn and melt into hard puddles of waste.

The sound of excited clapping sounded right behind Erik, since he was supposedly the last in line he turned his head sharply to glare at the person for startling him.

He also chastised himself for being completely absorbed in the horror show in front of him that he had someone sneaked up without him hearing them.

"Wow! Magnificent! I was afraid that it was getting a bit doggy in the middle but that finale was perfect!" A wildly grinning man continued to clap for several more seconds as everyone turned to him. As soon as Erik had turned around the man turned that blinding smile on him.

Erik was able to contain the blush that wanted to rise by blinking rapidly for a second, as if blinded by the man's bright smile.

Which in hindsight wasn't much better then blushing.

The man continued to smile as he walked up to a part of the small stage that wasn't on fire, completely ignoring the fire hazard that continued to hungrily consume his toys and stage.

"Who are you?" The blonde woman asked rudely, smacking her gum loudly and chewing with crassness.

"He's Charles Xavier." Erik scolded. He didn't bother to explain how he knew that, only that it felt instinctive.

That this strangely dressed man in his velvet caerulean floor length coat and top hat with the crazily bright smile was the man they had all come to meet.

"That's not possible. This guy's too young to be the old, fat geezer who owns this place, plus he's dressed like some kind of circus freak." The dark-haired woman sneered, sure of herself.

"I assure you, this man is Mr. Xavier. Please avoid being unnecessary rude if you can help yourself." Erik said gravely and glared her down when she tried to protest, since he knew he could be frightening when he turned his gaze cold he wasn't surprised that she didn't argue.

Everyone was standing in stunned silence as the man just continued to stand there grinning at them until the silence finally seemed to get to him as well because the smile was soon replaced with uneasiness.

"Hello star-shine, the earth says hello!" Mr. Xavier tried to say brightly but it was clear to Erik that the man was beginning to get uncomfortable with everyone's unimpressed stares.

Erik sighed lightly before deciding that he didn't need his dignity.

"Hello Earth, good day to you." He said drolly but it seemed to be worth it because the bright smile returned to the man's face. He ignored the snickering from the others around him.

Mr. Xavier then pulled out some note cards from his coat and shuffled them for a second before reading off them without looking up.

"Dear guests, greetings to you all. I welcome you to my factory on this day. I shake you warmly by the hand." Mr. Xavier then paused and slowly put his hand out uncertainly.

Unfortunately for him everyone but Erik was either too busy laughing, the boys, or rudely sneering at him for his fumbling, the girls. Once again it looked like Erik had to be the only adult in this group, he stepped forward before their host could drop his hand.

"Hello, Mr. Xavier. Thank you for your warm greetings." Erik said seriously, while shaking the chocolatier's hand firmly, the gratitude in the man's smile was unnerving.

Mr. Xavier went back to his speech, it seemed that he'd acquired a newfound energy as he practically bounced in place as he finished with a flourish.

"My name is Charles Xavier and I promise you this will be a day for you all to remember." He announced with zeal. "Now let's get moving, daylight's being wasted." He gestured for them to come forward as he walked to the doors, avoiding the areas on fire.

Everyone looked at each other with uncertainty but still hurried to catch up. Walking through the open doors they passed by a large curtain and found themselves in a long, large hallway. The large doors closed behind them, closing them to the outside world.

"Just drop your coats anywhere." Mr. Xavier spoke, not taking his own advice and leaving his on. The temperature inside was hot so everyone who had jackets and scarves, which was everyone but Erik, took them off and laid them gently on the ground near the entrance.

"Don't you want to know our names?" Asked one of the boys as he shed his bulky parka.

"Not really." Mr. Xavier answered absently, leading the group as he walked down the hallway to another door.

The blonde-haired woman gazed at their host with a calculating eye for a moment before coming in close and hugging the startled man coyly.

Mr. Xavier froze with a look of horror on his face as he squirmed in place, he was clearly uncomfortable and Erik was barely able to stop himself from snorting out loud in dark amusement.

"My name is Raven." Raven said as she pulled back, a wide shit eating grin on her face.

"I don't care." Mr. Xavier said, with a flushed face as he turned back around to continue on. He was moving even quicker this time, more than likely so he could avoid getting touched again.

Erik wondered absently what Mr. Xavier would do if Erik decided to hug him spontaneously like Raven did.

Probably have a heart attack.

"Well you should care because I'm the one who's going to win that special prize at the end." Raven said confidence ringing clear her voice.

"Well you seem to be very confident and confidence is keen." Mr. Xavier said inattentively.

The other girl suddenly popped up and pushed Raven roughly out of the way causing her to stubble into Erik as they all hurried after the chocolatier.

Erik placed his hands lightly on her shoulders to help her regain her balance but made sure to not touch her more then was necessary, he didn't want those power legs of hers to kick him.

"You alright?" Erik asked.

"I'm fine." Raven fumed as she stared angrily the retreating backs of the others. She gave Erik a small but real smile before moving to quickly going after the others.

Erik watched her for a moment to make sure that she was really okay, but once it was established that the only thing bruised was her pride he turned his attention back to the others.

He managed to catch up just to catch the tail end of another introduction.

"-always thought of angels as big blurry men with swords and spears, wreaking havoc on everyone else." Xavier said with naïve charm as the boys and Raven snickered behind their hands.

The other woman, who Erik now remembered was named Angel, frowned heavily as she seemed at a loss for words.

The red-haired boy laughed loudly before putting himself quickly in front of Mr. Xavier, once again stopping everyone in their path.

"I'm Sean. I love your candy, I eat it every day." He said as he pulled out a melted bar of chocolate from his back pocket and shoved a large piece into his mouth. His face already had signs of smeared chocolate on his cheeks and chin.

"Ah I can see that." Xavier replied awkwardly. Before continuing he seemed to pause in thought before turning to the other boy with an expression of annoyance.

"And that would make you Alex, wouldn't it? You're the little…kid who thinks he cracked the system."

Then he turned to Erik, a small smile grew on his face as Erik shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"And you…well you're just lucky to be here aren't you." He said, not unkindly. Erik couldn't find it inside himself to be angry, it was true after all.

It was pure dumb luck that got Erik to find the last golden ticket.

Not that he wouldn't have had to find a way into the factory anyway. Even without the ticket Mr. Shaw had made it clear to him that he had no choice in the matter. Still Erik decided he would enjoy himself for as long as he could before the prefect opportunity presented itself.

As they all walked through the entry hallway Erik began to feel like something was off. He looked around carefully and noted with fascination that the walls and ceilings were getting smaller and smaller the longer they walked forward. It seemed like no one else noticed though until it got to the point where they were bending their backs to avoid hitting the ceiling with their heads. The doorway to the next room which had seemed so large from far away was now the size of a child's playhouse.

To say that the outsiders were confused would be an understatement.

If Erik was to believe in his grandfather's stories this kind of thing was quiet common place and things would just continue to become more bizarre the further they explored into the factory.

"Now beyond this door is one of the most important rooms in the factory."

"So why is the door so small?" Alex sneered with a whine in his voice.

Erik didn't know why he was complaining since Erik was the tallest he was the one who was practically on his knees, if anyone should complain it would be him.

"It's to keep the great big chocolate flavor inside from escaping." Charles said brightly before taking out a giant key ring from his coat and after several long seconds selected the correct key to unlock the door. He pushed the door open and somehow the door looked big enough to fit them. Erik figured it must have been some kind of optical illusion that made them only think that the door had been so small.

"Now don't get over excited, just enjoy yourselves without worry." Charles said as the rest of the group walked inside the room.

It was…awe inspiring to say the least.

The room looked like it could go on forever. Fields of what looked like green grass and trees filled with candy scented fruit covered the room.

Cutting through the room was a giant river that looked to be bursting with…was that chocolate?

"It's beautiful." Erik said and it was only when everyone looked at him that he realizes he'd spoken out loud. He glared until the other's amused looks faltered and everyone turned away.

"Oh, you think so?" Mr. Xavier hummed thoughtfully. "Yes, I haven't thought about it that way for years but it is quite lovely." He said as his eyes roamed the room with a twinkle.

"The entire river is made out of the finest chocolate. Pipes from all over the factory come here and take the chocolate away and disperse it to the rooms that need it. You see that chocolate fall over there?" Mr. Xavier pointed to a rather large waterfall.

"That's my chocolate mixer; it mixes the chocolate and keeps it light and creamy. No other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall."

Mr. Xavier showed them the wide path that lead down a small hill towards a patch of the trees. Sean's face was red with excitement while Alex looked like he was about to break out into hives from all the chocolate that surrounded him.

Angel and Raven didn't really have much expression at the moment although if you looked into their eyes you could tell that they were listening.

"Why don't you try the grass? Please take a blade, or some of the flowers. Doesn't it look delicious?" Mr. Xavier teased as he plucked a small flower from the ground and held it out for someone to take.

"You can eat the grass?" Sean asked as he took it with shaking hands.

"Of course, everything in this room is eatable, the grass, flowers, trees, and even the very ground itself is made out of crushed cookies." He seemed to finally take notice of Alex's unimpressed stare because he added cheekily. "Even you're eatable. But I wouldn't recommend it as I heard that cannibalism is frowned upon in this country."

Erik raised an eyebrow at that but refrained from commentary while the others stared at each other with suspicious eyes.

"Why don't you all go enjoy yourselves, shoo." Mr. Xavier made shooing motions with his hands as he leaned against one of the candy trees.

Sean didn't need to be told twice and was off like a rocket and after some hesitation, Raven was next to leave the group with Angel followed slowly behind her.

Alex just crossed his arms and sat down on a rock, clearly unwilling to explore the room. As Erik examined the rock out of the corner of his eye he noted that it wasn't really a rock but some kind of hard candy growing out of the ground.

Erik was the last to explore, but he felt Mr. Xavier's piercing gaze a little to unnerving to stand under for long.

Wandering over a small hill he took stock in all the candy and sweets around him. The room was filled with so much sugary and overly sweet treats that he could feel his stomach twisting at the thought of overeating all of it.

While he knew that he couldn't put off stealing something he wasn't sure if Mr. Shaw would accept anything from this room. The candy, while original in shape and origin was still ordinary and wasn't anything new and inventing.

Besides he knew that Mr. Shaw wanted a formula or receipt of something no one had ever seen before, and while he had told Erik that he wouldn't have minded a piece of actual candy to reverse engineer Erik knew better then to think the man wouldn't take out his anger at him for not giving him exactly what he wanted.

Erik wasn't sure if sneaking off right off the bat would be a smart move either. Maybe once they got deeper in the factory he could excuse himself to the toilet or something similar and find what he needed before either making his own exit or finding the group again after becoming conveniently lost.

As Erik absently planned he walked towards what looked like an apple tree, although instead of juicy fruit the apples hanging from the brances were covered in different sauces, candy apples.

Erik reached out and plucked one that had a simple caramel covering, instead of the dozens covered in sprinkles, nuts or chocolate.

He took a small bit and barely contained the moan that purred from his chest. It was easily the best thing he'd ever had the pleasure to taste. The apple was juicy without being overly sugary and yet the caramel was just the right amount of sweet to balance the tartness of the apple.

"Are you eating that or making love to it?" The question came suddenly from nearby. Amusement clear in the voice.

Erik hadn't even realized he'd closed his eyes as he enjoyed his treat. Opening them up he glared down at Raven as she stood a few feet away with a smug expression and a smear of what looked like raspberry jelly on her lips and chin.

Erik took his time chewing and swallowing before asking dryly if he could help her with something.

"Nope." She smirked as she reached out and plucked her own apple.

She took out her piece of gum and to the complete disgust of Erik, placed it behind her ear to save for later.

"Why do that? Why don't you start a fresh piece?" Erik asked, honestly confused as to why anyone would want to continue chewing on a stale piece of gum.

She glared at him with a flush staining her cheeks, it was clear that she had taken offense at something he had said but for the life of him Erik couldn't figure out what he'd said that made her angry.

"Because then I wouldn't be a winner, I'd be some poor loser like you." She took a rather big bite of her apple and sauntered away.

Erik stared after her for a second, feeling slightly shocked over her rudeness but he couldn't take any real offense since he'd rather be poor then some kind of spoiled ill-mannered brat like her.

Better to be poor and wise then rich and a fool as his grandfather liked to say.

Erik stared at the apple in his hand and placed it gently on the ground near the tree. He didn't feel like enjoying the sweet anymore and while his stomach was cramping a bite due to not eating much in the last day he'd rather not risk being sick later on.


	10. Chapter 10

p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik walked towards the chocolate river, making sure to stay away from the edge as it looked like the ground melted into the river. It was probably the chocolate cookie dirt mixing in with the hot chocolate./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik noticed that there was steam waffling from the fast-moving river, he figured that to keep the river chocolate in liquid form the river must actually be pretty hot./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He took in the scenery from his vantage point. Catching glimpses of the others as they either stuffed their faces with sweets or themselves were wandering around./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik turned his gaze back to the chocolate waterfall. Mr. Xavier was genuinely a genius to have created this kind of room, which seemed to serve no other purpose but to inspire. Of course, he was also a crazy, somewhat loony man but still a genius at heart. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik would even tentatively admit the man was good looking as well, Angel hadn't been wrong in that respect when she had mention that their host was young looking./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The man behind the world's largest chocolate factory and largest distributive of sweets was very young, much younger then the world would be believed if Erik remembered correctly. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"It made Erik wonder how such a young, good looking gentleman could have built this kind of empire in such a short amount of time. The factory had only been in business for the past ten years, it must have also been something smaller once upon a time before it expanded into the large factory of today./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"How old was Mr. Xavier then? He looked only a few years older than Erik but that didn't make sense and it gave him a headache just thinking about it./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Turning he attention away from the developing ache behind his eyes he looked over across the river. At first, he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing but when his mind consciously caught up to his eyes his jaw dropped in shock./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik sputtered out as he gazed at the small biped creatures working across the river, from what Erik could guess due to the distance was that they were small, probably the tallest would come up to his knee while the smallest was almost a head shorter./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"They were all dressed alike as well, wearing some kind of bright colored jump suit, and all of them had fairly dark skin and hair. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The jump suits also clashed horribly with the scenery and their skin tone. So much so that even Erik who wasn't really known as a fashion prude cringed as the clashing colors./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"As Erik calmed down from his initial shock he noted that they seemed to be doing some kind of maintenance along the back wall near the waterfall./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Alex had wandered over towards the river nearby as well and had also taken note of the others across the brown river. As Erik turned his attention to the other boy he noticed the expression of disbelief mixed with dislike cross his face./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""What the hell are those things?!" Alex called out, his voice gathering the rest of the group to the riverside. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier was the last to join them as they all stood there gawking. He was smirking lightly as he took in their astonished faces./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Are those real people or robots?" Alex asked him once they realized their host was among them./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course, they're real people. They're Ompa Loompas." Mr. Xavier scolded him. "Robots indeed."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Ompa Loompas?" Angel asked the question that was suddenly burning through all their minds. Erik had never heard of a species named Ompa Loompas but considering there was much of the world he'd never seen he readily accepted it. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The others on the other hand were more skeptical. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""From Loompa land." Mr. Xavier explained. "The factory needed workers and they're a real generous and kind race so I hired the whole lot of them."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Loompa land? There's no such place, you probably hired midgets or something" Alex scoffed and crossed his arms angrily./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier frowned at Alex's words and tone./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course it exists, I spent over six months traveling that country, lovely place but the plant life was dangerous if you didn't have a Ompa Loompa with you as a guide." Mr. Xavier stated with certainty./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""No there isn't! I've taken geography for three years and I'm telling you right now that no such country exists." Alex was cut off as Mr. Xavier continued to talk over him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""If you'd taken geography then you'd know how horrible such a place is. I'm so very glad I was able to relocate the remaining tribes." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The way Mr. Xavier was staring at Alex was like he was daring the kid to argue with him. Alex just huffed angrily and turned his head away, clearly done trying to reason with the man./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey what's he doing?" Angel said as she pointed across the river near a small red bridge. It looked like Sean had wandered over to the other side of the river while they had all been occupied with the Ompa Loompa discussion. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Now that Erik thought about it he didn't remember seeing Sean since they'd first broken up the group when they'd first entered the room. It stood to reason then that the boy hadn't even noticed the Ompa Loompas behind him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"They watched the younger teen maneuver himself closer to the edge of the river until he was at the very edge, then he bent forward until his face was level with the liquid chocolate before drinking straight from the river. After a few seconds his whole head was almost underneath the liquid as he greedily drank the chocolate./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""He's trying to drink the entire river dry." Erik commented sarcastically./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Unfortunately, Mr. Xavier didn't seem to share in his sense of humor. He was fritting and panicking as he shouted for Sean to stop touching the river. Apparently touching it with your bare hands contaminated it and with Sean adding his saliva to the mix it was becoming one big pile of wasted trash./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Sean either didn't hear or choose to ignore him because the kid continued to drink greedily, even going so far as to lean forward until his whole upper body was handing over the river./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik could see what was going to happen before it did, so he wasn't too surprised when Sean fell into the river when he leaned too far forward./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"What did surprise him was instead of worrying about his guest's health and wellbeing Mr. Xavier looked more annoyed at what had occurred, also he had a glimmer of grim expectance in his eyes that Erik didn't like. Almost like the man had expected something like this to happen./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Even more interesting was the Ompa Loompas, their small faces were impassive as they watched Sean flared about within thick chocolate./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Help." Sean finally hollered as he tried to get out of the chocolate but the more he flared his limbs around the deeper he drove himself into the river, leaving the shoreline further behind./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I don't think he can swim." Raven said conversationally as she gestured to Sean's slowly drowning body./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Nope." Alex responded back at her, he was watching the scene completely fascinated with what was happening./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik looked at them, unbelieving that they were just standing around watching as the kid drowned in a river of chocolate./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"While it may be the only death that Sean would have approved of Erik really didn't want to see anyone die in front of him when he had the power to save them./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik sighed out in frustration and pulled off his sweater and shirt in one fell swoop as he got ready to jump to drag the kid out of the chocolate. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik wasn't the best swimmer out there but he could at least swim a bit, more than Sean could anyway./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Before Erik could jump in though a hand blocked him across his chest, he looked up at the person who had stopped him and was surprised to see Mr. Xavier standing next to him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hold on a moment Mr. Lehnsherr." Charles said, smiling enigmatically at him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"There was low hum that echoed in the large room getting louder and louder as the seconds passed, they were all able to make out words but they didn't make much sense./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik stared across the river as the Ompa Loompas began to come out in droves from previously hidden doors./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Sean was flinging himself this way and that around in the river when a panel opened up in the ceiling and a large pipe shot slowly down into the river. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The pipe then began to suck up the hot liquidly chocolate, with the power behind it Sean had no choice but to follow the current that the river took him in./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"All too soon he went under and Erik felt his muscles tense as he lost sight of the kid./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Just watch." Mr. Xavier said smoothly, Erik hadn't noticed that the man's hand was still touching him, more importantly it was touching his bare chest. He felt his face flush at the warmth that radiated from the chocolatier's hand./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Soon enough the imagine of Sean was seen in the transparent pipe, swimming along with the chocolate, it looked like he had shot up about halfway but then had stalled for some reason. Because he'd stopped moving the liquid below him was becoming blocked. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ever so faintly they could hear his voice over the sound of the pipe, calling for help. Erik felt a rush of protectiveness, just because the kid was a glutton didn't mean that he deserved this level of trauma./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I wonder why he stopped, it's not like he isn't skinny enough to fit." Raven wondered out loud./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik frowned and looked over at the boy with critical eyes. His felt them widen as he saw exactly what had made Sean backup the pipe so badly./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""It's because his shirt and pants packed with candy." Erik announce as the background noise of the Ompa Loompas became louder. They all turned in disbelief as the Ompa Loompas began to sing and dance, making fun of the poor boy stuck in the pipe. Erik just stood quietly as they sang about Sean, while the others sniggered maliciously./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" His eyes narrowed even more as he listened carefully to the lyrics of the song that they composed spontaneously. Actually for something that only happened moments ago the song and dance look well-rehearsed, almost to the point that Erik felt suspicious enough to wonder if Mr. Xavier or the Ompa Loompas were clairvoyant./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Just as Erik began to get antsy enough to jump in the river regardless, the pressure in the pipe finally expanded and propelled Sean up through the tube until he was out of sight./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"After that it got very quiet with the Ompa Loompas finishing their taunting musical number and leaving back through their small trap doors./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik turned his attention to the others, most of them looked uncomfortable, as if they had just come to the realization that one of their own had been taken from them. Even if they'd only just meet there was something that banded them together, that they were the only ones from the public that had gotten to step into the elusive Xavier factory. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"On the other hand, Mr. Xavier looked as cool as a cucumber and even had the nerve to be dancing in place and it was only as the very last Ompa Loompa left that he stopped. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Even with them all staring at him in disbelief it was kind of fun to watch the man move around like a limp noodle, clearly dancing wasn't a part of the man's many talents./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Where does that pipe lead?" Erik asked as he slowly placed his shirt and sweater back on. He felt anxious, wanting to know if Sean would be okay, or if he needed medical attention. If he did then Erik would have to insist that Mr. Xavier call it in, regardless of the bad press the factory would get after one of his guests was injured. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier looked thoughtful for a second as he pondered Erik's question. "I believe that pipe is connected to the fudge room, oh that's so wonderful. That room makes the most delicious kinds of fudge. They have some of my favorites, strawberry, walnut, pecan, vanilla-swirl, bubblegum, paradox, satin, sapphire and so much more."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" "Are you sure you're talking about fudge, because those last three aren't real flavors." Angel interrupted him, her tone high and haughty./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier frowned and just shook his head dismissively. "Well you must not get out much if you believe that nonsense. Those last three emflavors /emare my best sellers, emand/em my personal favorites." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik had to cover up his smirk with one of his hands as Angel flushed angrily and stomped her feet like a child throwing a tantrum./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"After a moment, Raven asked the question that was burning in everyone's minds. "So what are you going to do about him? Will he be turned into fudge because I don't think he's going to taste very good." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Erik turned to glared at her for her bored tone and she just smiled smugly back at him./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier seemed to honestly consider it for a second before he nodded. "Your right of course, Sean flavored fudge doesn't sound tasty at all." He placed two of his fingers to his lips and whistled sharply, the sound echoing through the large room./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"An Ompa Loompa suddenly appeared near his feet, clearly waiting for instructions. Its sudden appearance caused both Angel and Raven to shriek out loudly in surprise./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bending down until he was eye level with the Ompa Loompa Mr. Xavier spoke softly. "I want you and three of your best to go to the fudge room, there's a little boy that mustn't be made into fudge. I don't want any of the taste testers to revolt on us. Just take a long stick and start poking around in the big mixing bowl until you find him." After seeing Erik's rather harsh glare Mr. Xavier flinched and continued. "If he needs medical attention just take him to the health care wing. I'm sure nurse Betsy can take it from there." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The Ompa Loompa nodded before bowing and walking away./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Mr. Xavier then stood up and grinned manically. "Alright now that that's taken care of, let's boogie."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;" /p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"They followed meekly after him, still reeling over what just happened. It almost felt like a dream, but whether this dream turned into a good one or a bad one was yet to be seen./span/p 


	11. Chapter 11

Walking quickly down a small, out of the way path, they soon came to a small bend in the shoreline.

The echoing sound of drums filled the still air around them the closer they got to wherever they were heading.

Which turned out to be a boat.

Sitting serenely in the chocolate river was a large rowboat in the shape of a smiling cat. The color of the rowboat was an offensively bright purple and seemed to sparkle in the artificial light.

Alex was snickering at the very sight of it while Angel was cooing over the color of the cat.

Erik and Raven were just unimpressed with it all and made sure everyone knew it by the total deadpanned expressions they sported.

The Ompa Loompas on board of the boat giggled at them. At the very least they wouldn't have to row the boat themselves through the thick chocolate, since the Ompa Loompas all had large oars needed to propel the boat through the river.

"What's so funny?" Raven questioned, popping her gum loudly to the annoyance of everyone around her.

Mr. Xavier leaned in closer, almost invading her space as he spoke in a mock whisper. "It's got to be all those darn coco beans." He stood up straighter and smirked brightly.

"Did you know that chocolate releases endorphins, kind of like an aphrodisiac, gives one the feeling of being in love."

Erik's breath caught in his throat for a moment as his eyes meet the man's. It only lasted a second but the chocolatier's eyes had held a suspicious twinkle, almost like he was laughing at him.

Something that Erik didn't apricate at all, still it was better to think that the man was laughing at him. Because otherwise Erik would begin to entertain thoughts that were best left unthought.

The odd occurrence between the two was broken quickly though the moment Angel slinked her way towards their host and roughly grabbed his arm and began to aggressively cuddle it.

"You don't say?" Angel smiled seductively but instead of blushing or stuttering Mr. Xavier just grimaced and not so subtly pulled his arm from her grasp before making his way towards the boat. While also making sure that at least two people were between them the entire time.

Raven snickered loudly as Angel pouted with outrage at her failed attempt to seduce her way into a win.

One by one they all piled into the empty part of the boat, which was the back end as the front was full of the Ompa Loompas. There were three empty bench rows so it was clear that it had been designed for more people than their small group.

Angel sat on the bottom bench, as far away from their host as she could get as she sulked heavily, while Alex and Raven sat on the bench above her together.

Once they were seated the two of them began to talk in hushed voices, Erik didn't bother trying to overhear them. If they were planning on doing something he wanted plausible deniability. Erik decided to take the next bench up, which was the highest one and would afford him some distance from the others.

Besides it had the best view.

Sadly, that didn't work out so well when Mr. Xavier took the seat next to him instead of sitting literally anywhere else.

Erik got a few glares or impressed glances from the others once they noticed who their host decided to sit with. Erik just glared back at them, clearly unimpressed with their feelings in the matter.

Once everyone was securely seated Mr. Xavier called out to the Ompa Loompas to push out from the dock.

The rowers all nodded in unison which to be frank, Erik found creepy as hell.

"Here, drink this." Erik's attention snapped to Mr. Xavier as the man held up a ladle filled with chocolate from the river towards him. Erik didn't even want to know where he had pulled out the kitchen appliance from. "You look like you could use it."

When Erik didn't take the offer, the man pouted fiercely and held up the ladle higher and closer towards him, so much so that Erik was in danger of having the whole thing spilled onto his sweater if he didn't take it.

Having no choice now, he gently took the ladle from the man's hand and sipped at the liquid chocolate, trying to keep it from dripping onto his clothing.

Erik closed his eyes and breathed out a soft moan as the liquidly goodness filled his mouth and slid down his throat.

It tasted divine, he'd never had something that tasted like liquid sun before. It was possibly the best thing that he'd ever put in his mouth.

Now that he'd gotten a taste of the pure chocolate from the river he could hardly blame Sean for guzzling it down like a starving man.

Someone nearby cleared their throat loudly.

Erik's eyes snapped open to see that everyone's eyes were fixed on him, even a few of the Ompa Loompas were looking backwards at him, their small face's twisted in a comical expression of hilarity.

He coughed and covered his mouth with his free hand. He could feel some of the chocolate smudge on his lips and fingers but he ignored it as he shoved the mostly empty ladle back at the wildly grinning man next to him.

He felt his face redden in mortification. He must having been unconsciously making noise while he'd been enjoying the chocolate. But for the life of him he couldn't remember the last few minutes except for appreciating the treat.

"Holy shit, dude. That was as hot as hell." Alex exclaimed, his own face flushed a bright pink.

Everyone's eyes turned now turned towards him, and while Erik was happy that everyone's attention was off of him he couldn't help but glare at Alex's comment.

"What? You all have a problem with me complimenting a guy?" Alex demanded defensively when he noticed that he held everyone's attention.

"Oh, come on. It's not like you all weren't thinking the damned same thing, I just voiced it for you."

Mr. Xavier cleared his throat loudly as the silence continued awkwardly. "Ah, well not to change the subject or anything from this riveting conversation but we're about to enter the next stage and I'm sure you'll all want to be paying attention to this next bit."

As he spoke the Ompa Loompas rowed the boat towards a tunnel that none of them had taken notice of before. So, leaving the candy forest behind them they entered it.

Erik squinted his eyes, trying peer through the gloominess, but couldn't see a damned thing in the gloom of the tunnel.

There were a few lights on what he assumed was the ceiling but other than illumining the way forward it did nothing for visibility.

"Will we be traveling in the dark?" He asked Mr. Xavier but got no answer as the man seemed to be lost in thought.

Erik's mouth puckered in displeasure but instead of complaining or asking his question again he turned his attention to the others who hadn't stopped whispering loudly to each other since the incident with the chocolate.


	12. Chapter 12

In fact, Mr. Xavier was so deeply lost in thought that he completely blocked out everything around him and missed Erik's question entirely. The darkness of the tunnel helped him focus his thinking as he complemented this whole idea of inviting complete strangers into his home for what felt like the hundredth time.

It was true that he hadn't truly interacted with another human being in the last few years, and now he was responsible for five of them. Well, currently the number had dwindled down to four, but even if one of them wasn't currently in the group he was still responsible for his well-being.

He just hoped that the kid didn't really need nurse Betsy's help, that Ompa Loompa was the devil in a white nurses' uniform.

Turning his attention to his charges he sniffed discretely in distaste. He was lucky that none of the winners of his little game had turned out to be real children.

Because while he had no problem empathizing with them, he would rather not have had to deal with their parental unit coming with.

It would have gotten extremely awkward. At least this way, while the group was young, they were all adult enough to come on their own.

Both Alex and Raven had huge chips on their shoulders, he'd figured out that it was more likely caused by their family problems but it still made them both closed-minded to even the most childish pursuit.

He knew that they'd both been internally enjoyed his relaxing, edible forest but they'd both shown such outwardly distain that it had wilted a bit of his own self-esteem.

Now that he thought about it, every single one of the them had some kind of family problem. None of them worse than the others but wrong in all different kinds of ways.

He'd done a little research on each of them when the media had alerted him to the newest winners so other than the last one he knew a bit about them.

Sean had been a very neglected kid, but not in ways people thought of as neglect. It was clear that the boy was stunted from emotional trauma and abandonment.

As it was, Angel was the one that made his blood simmer with tense anger, she reminded him too much of Cain, his childhood bully of a late-brother.

Cain…he hadn't thought of his late-family for almost twenty years and now thanks to his guest he couldn't get them out of his head.

It was almost enough to give him a migraine.

After a moment or two more of ill thoughts he turned his attention to the man next to him, he'd asked him a question, hadn't he?

Out of all of them Mr. Lehnsherr was the most mysterious. He'd only found his own golden ticket the day before and he hadn't bothered to alert the media of his find either. So, Charles hadn't had the time to look him up in his wide data base. Although given his poor dress sense and general air of disinterest in the other candidates he couldn't help but think that even if he had the time Charles wouldn't have found much on the man anyway.

Still currently the man was his favorite by far, he was polite while also being refreshingly honest with his feelings, being either anger or happiness so far.

Charles took note of the position of the boat and suddenly leaned forward with a rush. He hadn't noticed the passing of time but they were going to enter the best part of the tunnel and he needed to alert his rowers.

"Full speed ahead now and turn on the lights!" He hollered out, knowing that his orders would be followed with perfection.

Just as the lights turned on, giving the tunnel a multiply color scheme the calm liquidity of the chocolate began to shift, making the boat rock a bit at the sudden motions.

"What the heck is with the color scheme." Alex called out but before anyone could answer him the boat shifted violently forward.

Everyone screamed with the exception of the Ompa Loompas and Mr. Xavier as they suddenly slide down a small waterfall into rapid waters.

After that everyone was too scared of the rough rapids to voice any questions, mostly they used the little breath in their lungs to scream out, either in real fear or fearful fun.

Mr. Xavier just sat calmly as the boat rocked back and forth in the rapids, not even sliding out of place as the boat tilted this was and that.

Finally, after countless minutes the rough chocolate ride smoothed out back into calm waters and everyone's hands released their death grips on their seats.

Erik turned his attention to either side of the boat, along the walls of the tunnel were huge doors, clearly leading to different rooms.

Each of the doors had a small dock so until further evidence Erik could only assume that traveling by chocolate river was one of the main ways to travel around the factory.

The names on the doors were both expected and unexpected. Cotton cream, butter cream, hair cream…

Erik shook his head, eccentric indeed.

"Stop the boat on the next dock." Mr. Xavier ordered excitedly. "There's something want to show you." He explained as the boat glided smoothly over the chocolate towards the next door.

The large lettering on the door made Erik's back straighten, Invention Room.

Jackpot.

Erik couldn't stop his mind from planning even as he frowned worriedly. It looked like he wouldn't need to sneak away from the rest of the group after all.

Which was both a good thing and bad. Good, in that he wouldn't have to get lost in the huge building or spend what might have been hours looking for the right room. But on the other hand, it was bad in that it made things harder when he had to snatch something from right under everyone's noses.

They all carefully embarked from the boat and walked through the large door into the room.

The moment they passed the door they could do nothing but gap in disbelief at the utter chaos in front of them.

Machines that looked like they had come from another world were littered all over the place.

While the Ompa Loompas, all in different colored jump suits walked around. Each of them with an air of importance to their assigned tasks.

"What the heck is this place?" Alex asked as he gazed around, visibly wide-eyed for the first time.

"This is the Invention Room and if I'm going to be honest is the most important room in the entire factory. This is where all the ideas and dreams are created and made into reality." Mr. Xavier said, his voice filled with creator's pride.

They're eyes were all gazed with overwhelm at all the equipment that was packed in the large room.

The Ompa Loompas no doubt laughing at them but Erik couldn't find it in himself to care. This was beyond anything he could have imagined.

It was no wonder Xavier's candies were better then everyone else's in the world.

He had freaking Star Trek in his factory.

"Well go on then, explore to your heart's content. Just avoid touching anything." Mr. Xavier's mouth twisted in a grimace at the thought.

Sadly, for him no one was paying him any attention as they all scattered apart to explore to their heart's content.

Erik knew he would have to be careful of what he actually touched. Since he didn't want to be reported by an overly curious Ompa Loompa and get kicked out of the factory before he really had the chance to look around.

It wasn't like he really cared if he made a good impression or not and he wasn't looking to win this surprise gift at the end of the tour either.

Although with the competition down by one with Sean hopefully squared away in someone's care it would be easier if he had actually wanted to win.

None of these so-called winners seemed worthy of whatever Mr. Xavier wanted to offer but it wasn't like he was any better. Even if he wasn't going to steal something for Mr. Saw Erik didn't see himself as being worthy of anything Mr. Xavier had to offer.

A cut off scream nearby cut off any further thoughts and got everyone else's attention. He walked briskly over to see what all the fuss was about and stopped short before he could get any closer.

It looked like he had walked into some kind of argument, one-sided by the looks of it.

Angel's face was twisted in embarrassed anger and was seen yelling at a stone-faced Mr. Xavier while Raven and Alex were standing a few feet away and were also watching the drama unfold.

That wasn't what caught Erik's attention though.

Another person and not an Ompa Loompa was fidgeting nearby, partly hidden by some nearby machinery. He must have been the cause of Angel's scream earlier because while he looked humanoid he was cover in bright blue fur and his face was similar to a cat. He was also wearing a lab coat, one that barely covered the thick layer of fur on his chest and arms.

"What happened?" Erik asked, trying not to stare and instead turning his attention to the other two members of their party not arguing.

Once they noticed that he had joined them Alex waved him over and Erik cautiously made his way towards them, staying closer to Raven in case anything got thrown their way.

"I'm sure you can take a guess, I figure we should just wait it out and watch her blow up and then deflate like popped balloon when he fails to respond to her." Alex smirked and Erik couldn't help but smirk back. It looked like they were both in agreement in seeing the high and mighty Angel taken down a peg or two.

"We were just looking around when that guy over there." Alex pointed to the blue guy that seemed to be trying to shrink into the floor. "Walked in from one of the side doors. As you can guess Angel freaked out when she saw him, which I guess caused the guy to freak out as well."

Alex shrugged. "After that things kind of degraded from there. When Angel started screaming Mr. Xavier hurried over so at least she's ranting at him instead of the poor dude." Alex explained the situation.

Erik nodded his understanding and turned to watch the rather one sided bitch fest.


	13. Chapter 13

The fight had continued on for a few minutes while the rest of them hung back awkwardly. Although no one looked more uncomfortable then the man who had seemingly started all this in the first place.

"Give me a minute, I want to check up on something." Alex whispered and made his way past Angel and Mr. Xavier, ignoring them as he walked his way towards the man who looked like he was silently having a heart-attack.

He then proceeded to speak softly to the man, ignoring how everyone was now staring at him, because of how softly they were speaking no one but the nearby Ompa Loompas could hear what was being said.

Once he'd said all that there was to be said between them Alex walked back towards Erik and Raven as if nothing was admiss.

Angel seemed to have forgotten whatever she was ranting about after that and instead of continuing her little tantrum she stomped off to another part of the room away from all of them.

The room was awkwardly silent for a moment, not even the Ompa Loompas were making much noise. Luckily for all of them Raven decided to be the one to break the ice and let out the most fake cough as she could before randomly pointing to one of the machines near her.

"Hey Mr. Xavier, what's this thing do?"

Mr. Xavier had begun to tend to his frightened employee but walked over towards them at Raven's question. Erik also took notice that Angel had snuck back to them although she was still hiding slightly behind them all.

The furred man trailed silently behind Mr. Xavier, not saying anything but gazing with curious eyes towards Alex.

"Oh this, well why don't I show you." With a smug smile, he pressed down on a big red button.

The machine came to life with a mighty roar of sound and movement. Erik and the others stepped back as it rock back and forth while steam came out from the many vents. It actually looked quite dangerous to be near and Erik didn't understand how Mr. Xavier could stand so close to it when barely avoiding the hot steam to his face.

They continued to watch in silence as a piece of the machine moved outward and something came out of it. It was a lot of fanfare for something so very small and singular.

Mr. Xavier took it gleefully and quickly pushed the button again, causing the machine to turn off, he then proceeded to wave the small candy in the air around him. "Alright can any one of you guess what this is?"

"It's gum." Raven said as she gazed at it, blatant want crystal clear in her voice, Erik took a suspicious step backwards, he didn't like that look in her eyes.

"Yes but not any ordinary stick of gum, this little piece here is a full three course dinner all on its own."

They all just sent him unimpressed looks although Erik was trying really hard not to salivate over the idea, he after all had an imagine to uphold.

"So? Who would want something as stupid as that?" Angel crinkled her nose in disgust, while Raven smirked at Mr. Xavier's offended look.

"Well I could think of a least several thousand people just in this country alone who would love this idea. Now it's no substitute for real food of course but it does have some nutrients of many food groups so think of it as more of a tastier nutrient bar or snack." Xavier continued to wave it around, as if trying to entrance them to stare at it.

Erik hated to say that it was working quite well on him. He really wanted that piece of gum and it was funny in a not so funny way because he actually disliked gum, the chewing gave him a headache the last time he tried it.

Erik's calculating mind also realized the applications of this kind of product as well and he could feel his thieving fingers practically itch to grab a stick and hide it. It would be a prefect sweet to steal for his employer. If he managed to smuggle out a piece of that gum then Erik's family would be set for life, that is, if Shaw decided to keep his word.

Erik was already wondering what other competitors in the chocolate world that both Shaw and Xavier had that would buy it off him if he managed to steal a piece and gathered up the courage and balls to defy both powerful men.

"It's not quite finished sadly, I hate to admit it but I haven't gotten all the kinks out yet, Hank here is trying to fix-"

Raven it seemed had finally had enough of waiting and jumped forward and quickly snatched the gum right from Xavier's hand. Erik's eyes widen as he saw this and stepped forward to try to stop it but he moved too late, unlike some of the others he had been intently listening to Mr. Xavier's words and the words he had just spoken about 'kinks' and 'not finished' sent alarm bells off in his head. It was clear that it wasn't yet ready for human consumption.

Just as quickly Raven backed up a few steps away from them and put the stick of gum in her mouth.

Everyone's eyes were widened in shock but no one more then Mr. Xavier himself, his mouth had dropped and disbelief as clear in his face. His hand was still head up, as if he couldn't quite believe that he was no longer holding onto the gum.

"Gum huh?" Raven continued to smirk as she loudly and lewdly chewed the gum.

"Please spit that out." Xavier pleaded as he tried to move closer to her but Raven continued to dance further and further away, there was real worry in his eyes and Erik responded to it.

"Raven I think you should do as he says." Erik demanded softly.

She sneered at him and continued to chew rudely, her eyes widen though as the flavors began to take shape in her mouth.

"Wow it really tastes like I'm eating clam chowder soup! Oh, wow the juicy taste of bacon…and the crisp lettuce and fresh tomato. This is the best BLT I've ever tasted. Yum, this is amazing!" She gushed loudly and it would have been cute and innocent if Mr. Xavier didn't look so concerned.

"Yes, I'm glad your enjoying yourself and it's nice to hear positive feedback but you should really spit it out now!" Mr. Xavier demanded, waving his arms helplessly.

Hank and Alex watched from the sidelines, one with an amused expression the other with a more horrified one. Angel was already clearly bored with the situation and was looking at something else nearby on another table.

"It's changing now!" She announced, completely ignoring them. "Steak and bake potato. It's so juicy and delicious." She bounced on the edge of her soles.

Mr. Xavier threw his arms up in the air. "Alright fine you've made your point! Now would you please spit it out before-"

"Wow blueberry pie!"

"-that." Mr. Xavier finished lamely. They all watched in anticipation as they waited to see what had the man so afraid.

It was so gradual that none of them saw it at first, but slowly Raven's skin began to fade into a azure tint. It started at her fingertips and slowly spread to the rest of her body.

"What's happening to her?" Alex asked Hank who just hung his head down and didn't look back up.

"What's going on?!" Raven asked, panicking once she took notice of her own skin color changing from a rich creamy tan to a deep blue.

From what they could see of her skin all of it seemed to have turned blue and her pale blonde hair was quickly turning strawberry colored, darkening even more as more time passed.

"Well I told you I hadn't got it quite right, in testing it seems that both the appetizer and the dinner work great but every time it comes to dessert…well it goes funny." Mr. Xavier paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's something to do with the blueberry, maybe we should switch to apple instead."

"Stop talking about the freaking flavor of your damned pies and help me!" Raven shrieked, her body began to bloat up and she screamed in fear.

"Shit." Alex backed up quickly, the others followed suit.

"She's swelling up…like a blueberry." Erik breathed out, fascinated and yet horrified at what he was seeing.

Mr. Xavier turned to him and beamed brightly. "Yes that's exactly it! We've tried it on at least twenty Ompa Loompas and they've all turned into blueberries when they get to the desert part of the gum. It's just weird." The man wrinkled his nose and if the situation hadn't been so dire Erik would have laughed.

Erik turned his attention away from Raven for a moment when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the workers were beginning to sing and dance again, only this time the song fit Raven to a tee. It really was suspicious and Erik really wanted to pull aside one of the works and ask one of them about how they were able to come up with a song so quickly and perfectly.

They watched in horrified amusement as the Ompa Loompas began to roll Raven around the room. She'd gotten so big that she towered over the rest of them by at least five feet.

Mr. Xavier was once again dancing next to him. Erik was torn between watching Raven and him, both were equally amusing and yet disturbing to watch.

"What will happen to her?" Erik asked as the song wound down and the Ompa Loompas finally seemed to be rolling her with a destination in mind.

Mr. Xavier smiled and summoned one of his workers.

"I want you to take the young lady to the juicing room, you know what you need to do." The Ompa Loompa nodded and bowed his head before directing the others to push Raven out of the door were the boat was waiting.

"She has to be squeezed so that all the juice inside of her won't explode."

"Wicked." Alex smirked, Hank and Erik sent him disapproving looks but the young man paid no attention.

Mr. Xavier clapped his hands together to gain their attention. "Alright then, let's boogey." He begun to lead them through another door, opposite the one they had entered.

"Oh, before I forget let me introduce you all to Hank." Mr. Xavier waved to the man next to him, the man- Hank waved awkwardly to the small group. "He's my most valuable employee and a great friend that has been with the company for years. As you can see Hank had suffered from one of our older projects, the change is permanent by the way." Mr. Xavier pouted. "I personally thought turning blue and growing such lovely fur was wonderful and we should market it immediately. Sadly, I was outvoted and the candy in question was scrapped off the table entirely."

Angel snorted in disgust and walked quickly by, without giving Hank the curtesy of an apology for her screaming. She'd been gleefully ever since Raven had swelled up and Erik couldn't help but sneer at her as she passed him. She really rubbed him the wrong way with her utter spoiled ways.

She just smirked back at him as she swayed on by, the look on her face was one of triumph.

Erik frowned at that, why would she be feeling victorious? He looked back with suspicion to where she had been standing when the rest of them had been occupied with the show.

His eyes narrowed on the desk where there was a tray of round candies laid atop, out of the even rows one of the candies was missing. He looked at Angel's retreating back. She had stolen something-was she a spy as well?

Possibly even Frost's spy? Or had Mr. Shaw hired another and failed for inform him?

Erik slowly walked forward along with the others, they were all ahead of him but none seemed bothered by the fact that he was dragging his feet.

Mr. Xavier was talking about something or other to Hank. Because he was so far away from them he couldn't hear what they were talking about but three guesses was that it was about blueberry pie verse apple pie and the first two don't count.

As Erik passed another table filled with trays of strange and exotic looking candy he discreetly pocked one, moving so fast that no one even noticed him taking the candy, or at least no one called him on it.

Before they walked out of the door Hank finished his conversation with his employer and walked off to another part of the lab.

"He's not coming with?" Alex asked, trying to sound uncaring but even he couldn't mask the disappointment in his voice.

"Hank has some work to finish." Mr. Xavier answered while leading them down a well-lit hallway.

Erik was quick to catch up with the others, not that they noticed anything different. Amateurs.

Angel was still wearing her haughty superior look and Erik had half a mind to rat her out but since he was there for the very same thing, the candy inside his pocket felt heavier then lead and he couldn't risk them upending his own pockets and finding the evidence that he was just as much a thief as she was.

"Down this hallway we have a bunch of off shot rooms, nothing as glamorous as the inventing room but there are a few more small invention rooms, but I think we've seen enough of those-"

Mr. Xavier was cut mid-sentence, again by Angel who pushed her way past them to stand in front of a huge door.

"Where's this room go?" She demanded.

They all looked at the door; unlike the others this one didn't have a sign. It looked like it had been removed recently. There was also what looked like gold leaf around the edges of the door in a sweeping design. It was clear that this room was either more important than the others or something fancy was inside.

Mr. Xavier hummed as he gazed at the door thoughtfully. "Ah, I believe I know what room this is, although I could be wrong." He was clearly teasing them. Erik had no doubt the man knew every inch of this factory from top to bottom.

"Why don't we go in?" He suggested, Angel was clearly getting annoyed by not having her question answered immediately.

"Good idea." Mr. Xavier remarked and walked to the door and pushed it open.

They all followed inside quickly and Angel gasped and squealed with greed the moment all their eyes caught what was inside the room.

Erik couldn't help but privately agreed with the greed as much as he hated too.

This room was defiantly…interesting.

The room was circular in design, above and around their heads laid huge nests, inside the nests were very large geese.

They were easily twice the size of normal geese and instead of being pure white like normal, these ones were dusted gold and glittered in the soft light.

"Wow your pets are huge." Alex remarked in awe.

"They are not my pets." Mr. Xavier said sharply. "Look closer."

They all obeyed and Erik bit back a gasp as below the huge birds were some kind of scales.

They watched in fascination as one of the geese pushed out an egg and what an egg it was, easily as big as someone's head and all shiny and gold in color.

"The goose that laid the golden egg." Erik quoted, amused at the sight.

"Not just any kind of golden egg, they're chocolate eggs." Mr. Xavier stated proudly.

"Golden eggs." Angel whispered. She seemed not to have heard the Chocolatier about the eggs being made of chocolate and not pure gold. Her eyes hadn't moved and was staring intently at the sight of the egg as it dropped down gently on the cushioned scale, it sat there for a moment before it binged a cheerfully noise.

It was getting to the point that Erik wasn't surprised at the slightest when an Ompa Loompa came out of the corner of the room and picked up the egg gently. He walked to a nearby table and expertly wrapped it up the egg in brightly colored ribbon and paper.

"I want one! I must have one." Angel suddenly announced and rushed towards their startled host. "Give one to me now! Papa can pay you when we leave, just name your price." She pouted and pushed herself into his personal space, her breasts were practically pushing out of her tight shirt as she squeezed her arms together near her chest. It was clear that this was a practiced move on her part.

Unlikely for her Mr. Xavier was clearly uninterested in her assets and wouldn't be swayed like the dozens of men before him that had what Angel wanted.

"They are not for sale." Mr. Xavier scolded and moved away none to subtly. Angel's face turned down in an ugly scowl and she stomped her foot on the floor in a show of childish rage.

"I want one though!" She glared at them and then looked back at the birds, a greedy look on her face. "If you won't give one to me, I'll just go take one for myself."

She pushed past them and walked towards the nests. No one tried to stop her, it wasn't worth it really, Erik knew that Mr. Xavier would stop her somehow before she stole one of the geese.

The only thing he had to worry about was when they discover the stolen candy off of her if they would make Alex and himself turn out their own pockets as well. They'd learn quickly that Angel wasn't the only sticky-fingered person in the group. Erik wished he would hide the evidence better but unless they gave him a moment to go to the little boy's room he didn't have the opportunity.

Mr. Xavier leaned back against the wall and let out a long drawn out sigh, Erik looked at his bored face and crossed his arms. For some reason Erik felt a shiver of foreboding down his spine.

A bored Charles Xavier didn't bon well for anyone, least of all Angel.

As Angel walked towards one of the gooses that she had apparently chosen to snatch, the Ompa Loompas began to mass along the wall, as if waiting until the moment Angel did something stupid enough for them to break out in song.

"Why do they do that?" Erik asked suddenly, he turned towards the chocolatier.

Mr. Xavier turned his attention from Angel to Erik, his piercing eyes almost made Erik squirm but he found himself made of sterner stuff, mostly he kept his squirming internally.

"Hmm? Do what?"

"The Ompa Loompas, why do they sing like that?" Erik pointed his chin in the direction to the nearest small person.

"Oh, well Ompa Loompas love to sing, and their big fans of Karma." Mr. Xavier smirked and once again a shiver went down Erik's spine. Only this time it wasn't fear that made him break out in goose bumps.

"They've been looking forward to this for many moons now."

"So they knew that there would be greedy people coming to your factory?" Erik raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well it's just common sense to expect it, right? I had hoped…" Mr. Xavier trailed off and for a moment a sad bitter look shown in his eyes before being replaced by the ever-cheerful Chocolatier. "Well no matter."

Erik looked him in the eye and felt a small icy part of his heart melt in sympathy for the man. He clearly had hoped for something better in their group. Because why else would he have held this contest in the first place? Mr. Xavier had closed the factory to outsiders

because of the greed of people. It was brave of him to try again, but it was clear that the man's faith in people was shattered and the stolen bit of candy in Erik's pocket felt like a bullet. It was the last nail in the coffin and Erik knew that if a single piece of unmarked candy went out of this factory with him Charles Xavier would close his doors for good this time.

Erik didn't know what he should do in this situation. He hadn't anticipated that he'd enjoy the chocolatier's company and sympathize with his plight. Erik should be thinking of himself and his family and not giving a hoot about anyone else but that was easier said then done when the man was standing next to him with is watery blue eyes and small but genuine smile.

"I'm sorry Mr. Xavier, for the lack of common decency in our small group."

"You have nothing to apologize for Mr. Lehnsherr, and please call me Charles, I'm not that much older then you after all." Mr. Xavier- no, Charles smiled lightly at him.

Erik paused for a second before continuing, his mind made up about what he was planning to do. "Then please call me Erik. But you're wrong about one thing, we do owe you an apology. We don't really deserve to be here and you and this factory deserve much more than we are giving back. I just wanted to-"

A loud laugh from Alex startled them and cut of what Erik was going to say. They're attention turned frontwards and Erik coughed in embarrassment. He couldn't continue now. As he kept his eyes on him, Erik turned to look at Alex, now ignoring the man next to him to deal with the problem in front of him.

Erik could hear Mr. Xavi-Charles let out a loud huffing sigh.

"What's funny?" He glared hotly at Alex's back, the boy didn't even turn around to speak to him, not concerned even remotely that he might have upset the older men.

"Look at her go man!"

They both turned back towards Angel and Erik was surprised to see that she had climbed up towards the cages already and was stretching out her arm in the hopes to snag the feathers of one of the golden goose that laid chocolate eggs.

Erik wondered absently how she expected to leave with it, or what she thought she'd do with it if she by some miracle left with it. Erik figured that the geese must be feed something special to make them lay chocolate eggs as no normal bird could do such a thing. He bet that Angel didn't have the means to make what Charles feed them or to take care of them at all.

They watched as Angel stepped onto the scale to get a better angle. It was clear she didn't expect the trap door to open beneath her feet. A loud blaring noise sounded right before the scale opened. It wasn't like the crisp clear happy tune it made before. This time it sounded like a softer air raid horn.

"My father will hear of this!"

Those were her last words as she fell into the dark hole, screaming her head off.

It was over so quick that Erik had to blink a few times to come to the conclusion that yes, she really had gone and fallen down a trap door, of which had already closed up.

"Huh, she was a bad egg after all." Charles said thoughtfully, and as if response to his voice the Ompa Loompa came out and begun to sing and dance around the room, lamenting Angel's bad upbringing and selfishness.

"Where'd she fallen to, anyway?" Alex asked once the song ended and the Ompa Loompas went back to doing their business.

"Well when a bag egg is dropped onto the pillow, the scales opens up and drops down the egg into the garbage."

"And where does that go?" Erik asked politely, although he wasn't too concerned. He was staring hard at the birds and couldn't help but silently wonder if what had just happened had more to do with Angel's personal selfishness in having something that she couldn't or Emma Frost's desire to one up Mr. Shaw and Mr. Xavier.

"To the incinerator."

Erik choked. Alex choked.

Charles just stared passively at them until they got their breath back under control.

"The incinerator?! Charles…" Erik didn't even take notice that he'd said the man's first name out loud, because even with permission it still felt like some kind of taboo.

Although the shrewd look that Alex shot him should have clued him in.

"Don't worry, I believe this particular incinerator has been broken for a while now, so there will be several weeks' worth of rotten garbage to break her fall."

"…Well that's good then." Alex finally spoke as they both stared at the man with disbelieving eyes.

"Yea…well onward then." Charles snapped his fingers and walked out the room, Alex scrambling to catch up while Erik gave the room one last look before walking out.


	14. Chapter 14

"I don't know why I didn't think of this hours ago, it's the perfect way to travel around the factory, especially if you're here for only a short while." Charles spoke as he walked towards an unmarked and unadorned door which had a large button situated next to it.

After pushing the button, the door opened up automatically and they went inside, it was a tight fit and Erik couldn't help but star around with wonder as they cramped together in what seemed impossibly a glass elevator.

Once they were all inside and secured Charles pushed one of the hundred buttons that decorated the class walls. Erik felt Alex grasp his arm in shock as they suddenly shot up in the air.

The elevator felt unnaturally fast and unstable and Erik couldn't help the wide smile that burst on his face as the zoomed through the factory.

They zoomed around the many different rooms, never stopping in one place and visiting dozens of places at the same time.

The elevator seemed to be able to go in any which way direction. Whether it be up and down, left and right, long ways and many other different ways that defied to physical realm of possibilities.

Erik could tell that Alex was getting bored quickly. Something he couldn't understand and felt a bit saddened by.

How could anyone ever get bored in such a place?

Out of the corner of his eye Erik watched as Charles Xavier smile and hum to himself, pointing out the little things as they flew by, going into detailed story about this or that. After a while Erik noted that Alex was clearly tuning things out but Erik decided to paid attention with curious and yet frustrated eyes.

It wasn't their gracious host or the factory itself that was frustrating him but his own his conscious that was now deciding to wail on him.

Today had been the best and possibly the worse day of his life. He'd experience so many wonders like nothing he'd ever experienced before, seen things that would make the most rational person speak gibberish and somewhere along the way he found himself halfway in love with the man who made all these wonderful things possible.

Yea, he fucked up.

Erik sighed inaudibly as he stared with unseeing eyes down at the doll hospital. He snorted with laughter when his eyes focused enough to see the little Ompa Loompas in old fashioned nurse outfits tending the badly burned plastic dolls from this morning.

There was no saving them, not without some serious plastic surgery.

Erik stuck his hand in his pocket to touch the stolen candy, his fingers' rubbed guiltily at the piece of sugar and magic. He had the strongest urge to turn to Charles and hand over the candy and confesses everything; vow to give him all of Shaw's secrets and turn himself in to the police and considering how much that would upset his family that was saying a lot.

"Why is this place completely pointless?" Alex said, bored as Charles pointed at a giant mountain sized hunk of chocolate, they could see the Ompa Loompa with climbing gear chipping off huge chunks of the chocolate.

"Candy doesn't have to have a point," Erik pointed out, "That's why it's candy. It's meant to inspire feelings of freedom and happiness."

Alex snorted in disgust, "Whatever man, candy's a waste of time, and chocolate's even worse."

"You only say that because you can't eat it, if you could somehow eat some without going into epileptic shock you'd say differently."

Erik began to squabble with Alex, Charles and the factory forgotten for a moment. Neither of them noticed the way Charles looked at them, the contemplating and sharp calculating gaze.

Alex turned his head from Erik. "I want to choose the next room." Clearly he was done arguing with Erik, neither of them could make the other see his point of view so a cease fire was silently agreed.

Charles looked at Alex and smiled mysteriously. "Go ahead."

Alex glared at them then turned his attention to the hundreds of buttons, he finally decided on one after a few seconds, marked T.V. Room.

The elevator stopped suddenly and zoomed off in another direction, Alex managed to steady himself but Erik wasn't so lucky as he body slammed into Charles.

"Shit, sorry." Erik said and leaped away. His face felt horribly red all of a sudden and he cursed his pale skin as the blush was glaringly visible. He might not be as pale as Charles or even Sean but he did have more fair skin compared to some.

"That's alright." Charles reassured calmly, the smile he turned on Erik made him want to melt into a puddle of goo, as undignified as that was.

Alex snorted, "Pussies, why don't you both get a room, the sexual tension between you two is starting to give me the willies."

The glare that Erik shot him could have peel paint with how heated it was. Erik noticed smugly that when the elevator arrived at their spot Alex made sure that there was at least five feet between them.

Hah, served him right.

As soon as they were all out of the elevator and standing in front of another large vault-like door Charles handed them both these huge bug-eyed goggles. "Here wear these, the light in this room could burn out the retina in your eyes." He slipped on a pair himself and Erik couldn't help but silently coo at the sight, he really was adorable looking with them on.

The guilt was beginning to get heavier as more time passed and Erik couldn't help but wonder if he would be crushed by it before the day was done.

The room was completely white, a few Ompa Loompas were scattered around the room, mostly relaxing and watching a program on a nearby television. What was surprisingly was that Hank was standing behind a control deck in the room, he waved his hand-paw- in the air in a silent hello before going back to paying attention to the chart in his hands.

"Now this is one of the most interesting rooms in the factory, you know those commercials that you see on television? The one's that advertise food? Well I had a thought one day, what if when the commercial advertises the food, the viewer could reach out and take the candy from the screen, like a sample."

"That's impossible." Alex snorted as Erik listened, it sounded impossible but the thing that Erik had learned today was nothing was impossible for this man, only improbable.

"Now that's not true." Charles protested happily. "It was difficult at first I will admit, luckily Hank was here to assist me or else it might have taken me months to figure it out." Charles beamed up at his assistant and for one ridiculous moment Erik felt jealousy well upside of him before he could beat it into submission, it was an ugly feeling and it wasn't like he had claim over Charles after all so any feelings that had developed were irreverent.

"Your delusional." Alex snarled loudly all of a sudden. Erik finally took notice how irritated he was becoming.

It felt more than frustration, Alex was clearly feeling resentful over something and Erik was pretty sure he knew what.

"All this-" he waved his arms around him as if to encompass the entire factory. "-it's all foolish and not practical at all. You're like some kind of toddler or something!"

Charles stared at him serenely, insults didn't seem to faze him at all. "Maybe you should try it sometime Alex, there's nothing wrong with feeling like a child, to enjoy life from a child's view of things."

Alex sneered and crossed his arms in front of him defensively. Erik knew that he needed to quickly defuse the situation before Alex lost it and attacked Charles or one of workers in his anger. Although gazing at the muscles that flexed under the Ompa Loompa jumpsuits he was sure they could take care of themselves just fine.

Erik stared at the teen, as he looked at the glazed eyes and twisted mouth he began to wonder if what Alex was feeling wasn't anger but resentment.

To be allergic to chocolate and then being surrounded by it for this long must have been wearing at the teen's nerves for a while now, not to mention the suspicious way all of them seemed to being picked off one by one. It could be argued that everyone had gotten in their own messes without outside influences but it was still damning evidence.

Erik could sympathize with him but that didn't mean he'd let him attack anyone in some misguided sense of retribution.

"So, can you show us how it works?" Erik gestured to the machine in the middle of the room. "So that there is no confusion about it working or no." He clarified.

Charles turned to look at him and Erik got the uneasy sense that Charles knew what he was trying to do, nevertheless the man nodded in agreement and gestured to one of his workers to begin prepping the machine.

Erik watched in amusement as the tiny Ompa Loompa carried in a huge bar of chocolate, easily ten feet long and four feet across.

"Why's it so big?" He asked, bemused.

"You know how on the television everything's like two inches tall? Same idea."

Erik was still bemused but let it pass while Alex snorted in disbelief beside him.

Once the Ompa Loompa had settled the chocolate bar on the platform in the middle of the room.

Charles then directed them to stand next to Hank behind the controls.

"Ready?" Charles grinned, a slight manic edge to it that Erik and Hank couldn't help but mimic, Alex just rolled his eyes. Charles then pushed the button causing the whole room to light up almost painfully as the giant lights flashed, once, twice – the candy bar was gone.

"It's gone." Erik stated. Hank and Charles chuckled knowingly before Hank began to explain.

"The chocolate bar is actually above us now, in nano t.v. bits." Hank explained as he walked towards the television in the corner where most of the Ompa Loompa were crowding.

Charles seemed fine with Hank taking on the explanation, in fact he seemed excited and oddly proud of Hank as the blue man continued to talk excitedly.

Alex let out a disbelieving sniff as they all stood in front of the television screen but Erik couldn't help but stare intently at the screen alongside the others.

If Xavier and Hank said that the chocolate bar was going to appear on the screen Erik was incline to believe them, at least to the point that they were either proven right or wrong.

"What the heck is that?!" Alex exclaimed, they all watched as a chocolate bar slowly became visible in the screen, the channel on the television was a documentary about some exotic animal, so the chocolate bar was laying on a bed of grass next to the unconcerned animal.

"Take it." Charles told Alex, turning to the young man with a smug smirk lightening on his face.

"Are you insane? It's just a picture." Alex said doubtfully. "You must have set this up already."

"You were the one who pushed the button on the elevator though." Erik said firefly but Alex clearly was going to ignore the logic of Erik's statement.

Charles sighed, "Scaredy cat. Why don't you try then?" He turned to Erik expectedly.

Erik hesitated for a moment, trading a disbelieving look with Alex before he reached out slowly and touched the screen, he hadn't expected to touch anything other then the cold screen so when his hand actually went through the screen as if wasn't even there and went farther in and actually touched the bar and brought it out into the open he could only stare with awe and wonder.

"T-that's impossible." Alex stuttered out, Hank huffed, almost sounding affectionate and grinned widely at them all, proud of the machine he had built.

"It's…it's like magic." Erik breathed out, the candy bar still held loosely in his hand.

"Take a bite." Charles coxed. "It's real. It's just gotten a bit smaller, that's all."

Erik unwrapped the chocolate and took a small bite. Allowing the chocolate to melt on his tongue before swallowing. "It's good."

"Of course, it is." Charles said, Erik would have said that it sounded smug on anyone else but with Charles it just sounded like he was stating a fact and nothing else.

"Do you have any idea the implication of this?!" Alex said loudly as he stared with greedy eyes at the chocolate bar. If Erik was anyone else he would have jumped at the suddenness of it, instead he kept a firm grip on the chocolate bar and stepped back ever so slightly.

Everyone, including the Ompa Loompa turned to look at him but he wasn't paying them any attention.

There was a greedy almost desperate look in his eye as he stared between the chocolate bar that Erik held in his hand and the machine behind them.

"It's a transporter, one of the most revelation inventions ever and you're using it for _chocolate._ " The last bit was said with something close to abhorrence.

"I think he knows what he is doing." Erik said sharply, glaring at the youth.

Alex sneered at him, a wild glaze entered his eyes and Erik felt him heart drop, the others all had the same look in their eyes right before they acted out and got themselves in trouble. He had hoped that maybe Alex would have been spared this but it looked like he had hoped in vain.

"No he doesn't! He's an idiot! But I'm not…no I'm not." He repeated and before any of them could grab him he sprinted towards the machine.

"Don't touch that!" Hank called out, worry and frustration in his voice. Alex ignored him of course and pressed the button to start the process, as soon as that was done he jumped from the control station into the dais.

"Get down from there!" Hank yelled as he also ran to the control station to try to shut off the machine, but it was already too late, light suddenly flashed in the room. Luckily no one had yet to remove their goggles so none of them were blinded for long.

Erik blinked the lights from his eyes as he and Charles stood there kind of dumb struck at the plain stupidity of what Alex had just done to himself.

"He's gone." Erik stated the obvious as they stared at the empty dais.

"No, he's not." Hank said tiredly. "He's floating above our heads as tv waves."

"Let's check the screen then." Charles finally spoke after a moment of silence.

Erik whirled back around to the screen, chocolate bar forgotten entirely. He wasn't worried pre-say but when terrible stuff happened to the others at least he had witnessed what had happened and could at least judge that they would be alright, there was no telling with Alex though since he'd literally turned into light and dust.

"Look." Charles pointed out, Alex was slower to metalize then the chocolate bar but Erik figured that was because Alex was alive while the chocolate hadn't been.

"Wow…this is awesome."

"It's awesome, for someone who's not three inches tall, which you are." Hank growled at the pint-sized boy.

Erik tried to mask his shaky grin as the Ompa Loompa around them began to tap out a beat.

It had begun again.

"Show time." He murmured blow his breath, although he could have sworn that Charles had heard him if the amused hum that the man let out was anything to go on.

Erik couldn't help but be sadly amused as Alex ran around frantically on the television, one of the Ompa Loompa had the remote and was constantly changing the channel which was hilarious in a freaking out kind of way.

It was clear to them that Alex was only now realizing his predicament as a small tiny human.

After all, Charles never said anything about the process being able to be reversed. But for Alex's sake Erik hoped that it could be.

As soon as the self-degrading song was over with Hank reached in and grabbed the hyperventilating boy by his shirt collar and gently pulled him out.

"What now, Charles?" Erik asked as they stared down at Alex who decided that he would retain the right to remain silent.

Charles looked perplexed at the whole situation so it was actually Hank who answered his question.

"How about the taffy puller?" Hank suggested and glared a warning at the suddenly squeaking and protesting boy.

Charles suddenly became animated at the suggestion, a wide grin spread across his face as he stared down at the squeaking boy.

"Yes, that just might work, boys are stretchy. He'll become big again in no time. Hank would you mind taking the boy and making sure everything runs smoothly?"

"Sure." Hank shrugged, Erik couldn't help but think that the worker was going to get some satisfaction in tormenting the boy. After all Hank had seemed so proud of his machine and then Alex went and screwed everything up by acting out, although Erik couldn't help but notice the way that Hank cuddled Alex to his chest as gently as possible as he left the room in a hurry.

So maybe he wouldn't torture Alex to much before fixing him up.

Well that's an interesting match-up.


	15. Chapter 15

Erik couldn't help but contemplate the wild idea with a sort of dazed wonder. It was probably him just projecting outward and seeing things that weren't actually there.

Charles snapped his fingers as soon as they had left. "Well on with the tour then, you all seem to be dropping like flies so I better try to get in as much as the factory as I can."

Charles started to move back to the elevator when he stopped all a sudden, Erik who was following close by almost rammed into his back.

"Actually, how many of you are left now?" Charles whirled around and stood still as he noticed that Erik was the only one left.

Erik looked left and right and then bowed his head slightly, feeling oddly bashfully all of a sudden.

It hadn't hit him yet that with Alex gone that he was the only one left.

As the revelation hits him like a brick to the face, he begins to feel far from happy or excited.

Instead the feeling of guilt built up inside of him, thick, heavy and sickly.

A part of him register the well wishes and babbling from the man standing next to him but the larger part of his consciousness was trying to contemplate his options but currently all Erik could hear was the rushing of his own heartbeat and a strange ringing sound.

In truth, he felt faint.

He wasn't meant to win.

Hadn't meant to even to get this far into the factory, but he'd been swept away by the spender and majestic feeling that the factory and its owner sparked inside of him.

"Mr.…Xavier, sir."

A overwhelming feeling coursed through him, and Erik knew right then that he couldn't kept it to himself any longer.

Today had been the best day in his life since the majority of his family had passed. Until there was only himself, his mother and his grandfather.

He may not be a good person, but he couldn't reward the man that had brighten his outlook on all things impossible with stolen goods and malicious intentions.

He would figure out a different way of procuring his grandfather's medicine and find a new way out of this damned city.

The first thing he would do to achieve this would be to tell Mr. Shaw to shove his highly polished shoes up his asshole and leave his services. He'd deal with any retaliation as it came to him.

That was if Mr. Xavier…if Charles didn't end up throwing him to the court system after find out how unsavory a character he ultimately was. He knew that he would survive prison but he would worry constantly about his family if that happened.

He fiddled with the candy in his pocket again, he didn't know if the Chocolatier would want it back, with how much Erik had touched it.

The most hopeful situation Erik could think of was that Charles would throw it away after giving him a disappointed and rightfully angry lecture followed by a swift kick to his ass out of the factory and out of his life for good.

While all this was going through his mind Charles continued to babble on next to him. Not letting Erik get a word edgewise as he reached out and gripped the fabric of Erik's sleeve and dragged him into the elevator.

"Wait Mr. Xavier there's something I need to tell you-!" Erik tried to talk but Charles just continued to babble on as he closed the elevator doors.

"I'm sure you have many questions Mr. _Lehnsherr_." Charles essentially purred his name and Erik could feel the beginning of a blush on his pale skin. "But those can wait for now! I've always wanted to push this button and this is the perfect opportunity."

"What button?" Erik tried to ask but the moment that Charles gloved finger touched a small button labeled 'up and out' the small glass elevator shot upward at such a fast pace that it was all Erik could do to hold on and brace himself to keep himself from falling to the ground in an undignified heap.

Charles the bastard, seemed to be perfectly find and just shot Erik an amused smirk as he stood there as if gravity had no effect on him, which wouldn't really surprise Erik actually if that turned out to be true.

"What's going on?" He tried to shout as the elevator picked up speed.

"We're going up and out." Charles said smoothly.

"Wait-so when you mean…!" Erik's eyes widen as he looked up and saw the roof of the factory looming closer, there was a large sky light above them but the feeling of fear didn't lessen as he saw that they weren't going to go splat on a concrete roof.

"But this elevator is made of glass! We'll be smashed into a thousand pieces and cut up in more!" Erik roared in fear and anger. Had the man finally lost it? Was this some kind of suicide-murder?

Charles just laughed and looked up, a strangely peaceful look on his face, if Erik hadn't noticed the tenseness of his body he would think that Charles was totally unaffected by their seemingly end.

Erik took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the elevator got closer and closer to the sunlight, picking up speed all the way.

"If we are to die…Mr. Xavier…Charles, I have to tell you something." Erik was damned if he was going to die without confessing his sins. His family would banish him the moment he ended up on the other side and he would deserve it.

"It can wait Erik."

Erik opened his eyes, the soft use of his name on Charles lips caused is heart to skip a beat. Charles was looking straight at him, his face was still relaxed and peaceful but his eyes…they were…

The elevator smashed through the skylight, causing Erik to flinch but the expected death by sharp glass didn't come.

Erik couldn't help but feel an odd sort of giddiness as they flew through the air for a few more feet and then began to descend to the ground rather quickly, Charles was quick to push another button and four compact engines shot out from the corners of the elevator and suddenly they were flying through the air.

Actually flying.

"Oh my god." Erik couldn't help but breath out as they flew around the factory for a moment, Charles chuckled next to him but Erik couldn't care enough to be insulted about that.

Even with this awe inspiring moment Erik didn't forget that he needed to talk and confess. If he ever got a word edgewise with the man since every time Erik so much as opened his mouth Charles would suddenly point to something below them and start to babble again. It was getting a little suspicious and a dawning idea of what it all meant was beginning to build up in the back of his mind.

They circled the courtyard where the doors they had walked in only hours ago opened up to present the others.

Sean walked out in an almost giddy pace, he was completely covered in chocolate and seemed to be actually vibrating with happiness.

Well…Erik never thought that the kid was actually that stable to begin with.

The next to come out was Raven, she walked at a more sedated pace and seemed to be hunched over in herself, Erik pressed his face against the glass to try to get a better view of why she was doing that. The Raven he had meet had been much more confident, if ruder then this.

Her hair was still a pale red instead of the perky blonde she had before but he didn't believe that was the reason for this sudden loss of confidence.

He finally got to see just why she was hunched over as the elevator got closer to the ground, Raven's skin was still a pale blue color, not as deeply blue as it had been when she had been virtually a human blueberry but still quite a nice shade of mauve.

He watched as she hunched over towards Sean but not standing too close to the chocolate covered boy, the both of them were standing in the courtyard near the gate.

It was as if they knew that they couldn't leave just yet, or maybe they wanted to say goodbye to the rest of the group but either way Erik turned his attention to the doors, wanting to see if any of the others would be coming out as well.

Sure enough, Angel stomped out of the building moments later. She was literally covered head to toe in weeks' worth of old trash. Smears of unmentionable glop was soaked in her hair and the stains on her clothing looked permanent.

She stomped her way towards the others and sneered something at them. Whatever it was caused Raven to straighten her back and snap back while Sean hunched in himself. Surprisingly Raven stood in front of the smaller teen, as if blocking the younger teen from the wrathful trash heap. She must have said something truly nasty because Angel walked away.

Erik watched as she tried to storm through the gates but was stopped by them being locked. She screeched at the gates, ignoring the large crowd on the other side that were gossiping and taking pictures of her angry tantrum.

Erik scoffed at the sight, he turned his attention the doors once again just as the elevator landed on the ground with hardly a whisper.

"That was the smoothest crash I've ever been in." Erik said sarcastically.

Charles just huffed in amusement as the glass doors opened, letting them out.

As They exited the amazing flying elevator Alex walked out of the factory doors with Hank following closely behind.

Alex was taller now, by at least five inches. And while he hadn't been short to begin with Erik would estimate his height at a good 6'3 now instead of the 5'10 or so that he had been when they had all entered the factory earlier that morning.

He was also a bit skinner, not oddly or deathly but his arms and legs were definitely stick like. The taffy puller must have really enjoyed stretching him out.

Hank winched at the bright light but Alex had a firm grasp on the man's coat sleeve and pulled him along. He walked at a more confident but slow pace then all of the others. He made a straight for Raven and Sean, seeming to ignore the still screeching Angel by the gate.

Erik and Charles stood near them where the elevator had parked in the snow, the jets folded back in on themselves so it was like they were never there in the first place.

Erik didn't know what to do now that they had landed. He didn't know if it would have been better or worse to out himself as a thief and a liar in front of Charles alone or with an audience watching them.

But before he could even open his mouth Charles pulled out a small microphone from one of his inner pockets and turned to address the growing crowd on the other side of the gate.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." The crowd outside the gates began to cheer at the sound of Charles' voice. He waits until they've quiet down before continuing.

"I'm pleased to announce the winner of this momentous contest, Mr. Erik Lehnsherr. Let's give him a warm applause!"

Erik paled then flushed at the resounding cheer that echoed from the crowd. He knew that very few of those people knew him but that didn't mean that no one knew his name. There were several people from his neighborhood in the crowd and his name would spread like wildfire.

"A few months ago, I had an epiphany while I was walking through my factory. Here I am, solo owner and creator of one of the world's greatest chocolate factories and I realized that I've been doing this by myself for too time."

"I had this idea. This wonderful, mad idea. What if I could share my factory with someone? Another person who not only loved chocolate as much as I do but who would help me bring the chocolate age into greater highs with fresh ideas and inspiring hope and drive."

Charles stopped talking for a moment. He stood there watching everyone's slacked jaw expressions with an almost wickedly pleased look.

Erik was sure that his own eyes were huge as he stared at the mad man, shock and disbelief coursing through him. He wasn't exactly being subtle about where his speech was leading up too.

"Once I decided that this was something I truly wanted for myself and the company I only had to find this special person. But to find someone like this would be more difficult than putting out a wanted ad in the evening paper." Charles smiled at the startled laugher that echoed lightly from the crowd.

"I then created five golden tickets and promoted this event in the hopes that the person that would prove to be worthy to share my factory and secrets with would end up as one of the lucky contestants. This day has been…inspirable to say the least." Charles turned away from the crowd and smiled at the small gathering of ticket holders. Sean and Alex smiled back readily while Raven's smile was small and unsure.

Everyone was kind of ignoring Angel who was still attacking the gates.

"Today I happily announce the co-ownership of Xavier's Chocolate's to one Mr. Erik Lehnsherr."

The cheering from the crowd was deafening as was the unbelieving screams.

Erik could only stand there in shock. He could hear everything that was being said but nothing seemed to be penetrating past the disbelief.

This couldn't be happening. He hadn't even entertained the idea that Charles had been looking for someone to give half of his company too. He was filled with both despair and yet a morbid kind of hope.

Charles was looking back at him now.

The strange light was back in his eyes and then and there Erik's disbelief faded away and a weary acceptance took its place.

Erik knew that he couldn't rightly accept the man's offer. Not only wasn't it morally right and he would be riddled with rotten guilt for who knows how long somehow the truth would come out about who he'd been working for when he first walked through the factory doors and things would only spiral downhill from there.

He couldn't accept this wonderful and impossible gift that Charles was offering him.

He didn't deserve it, not after all the things he'd done in his short life and especially after what he had been willing to do earlier.

It wasn't fair. He knew that if he became co-owner of this wonderful factory he wouldn't just have enough money for his grandfather's medicine but he would have enough a hundred times over to set them up somewhere nice and comfortable and possibly even a bit over priced to live the rest of their lives comfortably.

But once it got out that he was a fraud it would become worse for his family if he accepted, and he knew that they would be disappointed in him for it.

Not for the first time in his life he cursed Sebastian Shaw for existing, for offering him a job when he had been young and desperate, hated himself for being weak and selling his life to that evil piece of trash and staining his own soul with foul deeds.

Erik took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the cheers of the crowd and the surprising well wishes from the others.

He opened his eyes, ignoring the black spots dancing in his vision.

Charles was still staring at him, as if he expected something of him and Erik had no idea what that something was.

Did he want Erik to cry? To laugh? To thank him? What?

"Charles-" Erik whispered but before he could continue he was cut off by a booming crash and screams from the crowd.

Everyone's eyes swerved towards the gates which were now opening, although saying that they were opening correctly would be false. It looked like someone had set off a small bomb on the gate's lock.

Angel was backing up quickly, her eyes were wide with fear and she had good reason to be.

Sebastian Shaw in a destructive mood wasn't something that anyone should get in the way of.

"I forbid it!" Shaw spat out as he stalked past the cowering girl and moving swiftly towards the rest them.

"He's mine Xavier and I won't have you stealing from me!" Shaw's eyes were wild with anger and oddly enough, nervousness.

Erik felt the blood drain from his face and his hands and feet felt cold and numb. A part of him wanted to run, to hide. While another one wanted to smash Shaw's head in to stop him from getting any closer to him.

Charles's eyes had gone glacial as he watched Shaw approach. Everyone else was clearly shocked by this interruption but Erik didn't know why he was surprised, because of course Shaw would ruin everything.

He couldn't even let Erik confess his own sins, instead he was going to broadcast them to everyone in the worse way possible.

"Shaw." Erik stepped forward when he heard himself speak. He didn't know what he was going to say. But he knew that he had to at least try to stop the man from twisting everyone's perspectives into something even more corrupt.

Even though Erik knew that once his actions were voiced it would ruin any comradery between the others and himself, he would rather the words come out of his own mouth then the twisted and vile mouth of his former boss.

Shaw turns to him, ignoring the rest of them now. His expression remained furious, it went beyond angry, borderline madness flashed in the man's pale, milky eyes.

It wasn't long before Shaw's gaze turned sly.

"Erik."

Shaw's voice had gone soft, making the hairs on Erik's arms raise.

"I'm sure that this farce of Xavier's isn't your fault. After all you can't be held responsible for this crazed man's schemes." He waved dismissively at Charles who just stared him down with cold eyes. Shaw's normal calm façade was slowly coming back as the crazed anger burned lower in his eyes.

Erik could see that most of the citizen side of the crowd had disappeared. Only a few brave and curious stragglers were scattered outside the gate.

Unluckily it looked like Shaw's men and a few other unsavory types had taken the space where only a few minutes ago had local families and excited tourists.

"Now my boy, why don't you tell Mr. Xavier how thankful you are for his offer but you must decline." Shaw's smile got wider and his yellow teeth shown in the last of the daylight shining down. "Because you work for me and no one leaves my employment unless I give my leave."

Erik felt helpless as the situation became critical, what could he possibly do now that Shaw's irrationalness had become public like this?

He'd been going to quit before but with how strange and unhinged Shaw was acting at the very thought of not having Erik under his thumb Erik didn't know if he'd survive leaving Shaw's employment.

Maybe prison would be better for him. He might even be able to ask Charles to get his family out of town and away from Shaw if he presented enough desperation at the situation.

He cased his gaze around him, trying to find a solution that wouldn't set the man off like a lit firework.

Everyone else were wearing identical looks of confusion and fear. They clearly had no idea what was going on and chose to remain silent.

When Shaw had walked forward Raven had hidden a bit behind Hank, which given his large size was quite easy, not to mention their matching blueness made the camouflage a lot easier.

Sean was still licking the chocolate from his arm, although he'd slowed down as he watched the affair in front of him. His tongue almost seemed passive-aggressive as he continued to eat with narrow eyes.

Alex's face was shuttered closed as he stared at the three of them. His eyes were dark with an unknown emotion but if Erik had to guess he would say that he was angry at the situation.

Both Shaw and Charles stood on either side of Erik. The only thing that would make the moment worse would be if both men actually took his arms and began to pull.

He wished he didn't feel like such a child at that moment. He may have been an adult in age right now but with how small he felt between the two powerful men Erik might as well have been child once again.

Erik looked down at his feet as his silence continued to grow.

His shoes were scratched all to hell and the heel of one of them was literally falling off. It was well past the time any other decent person would have thrown them out in the trash.

But a decent pair of shoes was so far below his list of necessary items that it didn't even breach the top ten.

Looking down at them it was clear the shoes were of someone who was lower class, some poor sod who couldn't even afford a new pair of shoes to replace the threadbare ones he had on right now.

And this was what Charles wanted in a partner? Charles wasn't even offering him a simple job.

No, he was literally going to give half of his company. His _billions_ of dollars company.

To him, a poor, low class man who couldn't- no, who _hadn't_ even bothered to get a legal job. But instead worked as a criminal for a deceitful and manipulating man who wouldn't even know how to make a child smile honestly for all the money in the world.

It was foolish idea, a child's fantasy.

Erik could feel the childish wonder that had filled him this morning when he'd walked through the doors leave him like evaporating smoke.

"I don't-"

He didn't want to look up at anyone as he spoke, but he couldn't help lifting his chin up a little to gaze up at Charles.

Charles, who was staring right back at him with calm, reassuring eyes.

If he was hoping that would make him feel better then Erik would disappoint him because it wasn't working at all. In fact, Erik now felt even worse than ever. It would be better if the chocolatier would gaze upon him with anger then understanding.

"Lehnsherr…" Shaw growled out.

Erik knew what he needed to do then. Knew that his choice had been made for him years ago when he made the mistake of taking Shaw's out-stretch hand with his small pre-teen one.

"Just a moment Mr. Shaw."

Erik ignored the man's ugly smugness, he ignored the protests of the others.

He just continued to stare at Charles…the man who had given him everything already.

The man who had offered even more to him and the man who Erik was now denying.

Erik side stepped closer to the man before lifting his face up. He may be something of a coward but he would address this man with the respect he deserved.

"I want to thank you, for today." He said softly, then added quickly. "It's been…nice."

 _Magical, wonderful, inspiring, beautiful._

Erik wasn't thinking about the factory at that moment, but of the man in front of him.

Before he could talk himself out of it he reached and pulled the unresisting man forward into a hug.

He could feel surprised tension as Erik wrapped his arms tightly around the man.

After a few seconds Charles' hands slowly moved to return the hug, until he was holding on just as tightly.

Erik couldn't help the lump that grew in his throat. He knew that it would have been more appropriate to just shake the man's hand but he had another reason to be close to the man other than expressing his feelings.

Unnoticed by the others surrounding them Erik reached a swift hand into his own pocket then dropped the stolen merchandise into Charles's front pocket.

He didn't know if the man felt the sudden weight but it didn't matter if he did or didn't. Erik had given back the stolen sweet to its rightful owner.

Now he just had to deal with the fallout of his actions and Shaw's.

Erik let go of Charles and turned away, not daring to look back as he walked past a bemused but smug Shaw.

Angel was still standing near the broken gate, her baffled expression would have been almost comical if not for the situation.

As he walked past her he stopped and leaned down to growl in her ear.

"I don't know what Miss. Frost is paying you with but if you value your continued existence you should turn that piece of candy you stole back to Xavier before he figures it out. Believe me, being covered in garbage would seem a pleasant experience to what I will do to you if Miss. Frost gets a hold of one of his inventions."

He continued walking after that, ignoring the terrified look that Angel shot him as she dumped out her pockets and made a run for it through the growing and interested crowd.

He could hear Shaw walking behind him, the bastard was practically radiating smugness and victory.

Erik swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, he really hated this man.

"Erik." Once again with the slimly purr. "I think we're far enough away from that vile factory, now give me what's mine."

Erik stopped walking before he slowly turned around. He kept his face as expressionless as he could as he stared at the man behind him.

Shaw had stopped a few feet behind him. That smug smirk stretched on his face like always.

That smirk haunted his nights whenever he had nightmares, Shaw always smiled like that when he'd gotten Erik to do something that he found immoral and delicious in his sick way.

Suddenly Erik was angry, it wasn't a normal kind of anger either. The feelings of hurt, unease and guilt burned under the flames of his rage. How dare this man- this simple asshole of a man who ruined his life and the life of his family like it was nothing?

As the calm and dangerous rage filled Erik he stood there in front of his employer, well- soon to be ex-employer.

"Well boy, where is it?" Shaw demanded impatiently.

Erik reached slowly into his pocket, making sure to make a grand show of it, letting a smirk bloom on his previously blank face as he walked forward, his hand clenched tight and outstretched, as if he was going to give Shaw something from the palm of his hand.

Erik would give Shaw something alright, something that the bastard had coming to him for a long time now.

Shaw was paying so much attention to his outstretched hand that he didn't see Erik's other arm coming up in a tight fist until it was too late.

Erik punched Shaw with all his strength and when Shaw laid out on the snow covered ground unconscious Erik found that he didn't feel any better for it.

Although it did leave him an empty feeling of grim satisfaction to see the split lip and growing bruise on the man's face.

"I quit."

Simple and to the point, Erik didn't even feel like ranting.

The anger was still there inside of him but he could feel the misery of the whole dark situation creeping up on him again, almost drowning out the anger.

Erik turned away from the scene and for the last time walked away.


	16. Chapter 16

Strangely enough, things got better for Erik after that.

That faithful day when he'd walked into Xavier's Chocolate Factory a thief and come out a different man altogether.

After he'd assaulted Shaw he'd gone home to his mother and grandfather and confessed everything.

Everything about Shaw and his real job, about his less then legal pastimes he'd indulged in. All about his fears that he'd been bottling up since his childhood and his newfound hopes for the future now that he wasn't under the thumb of Shaw anymore.

He also told them about the factory and how magical it had been. He even talked about his mixed-up feelings for Charles Xavier.

It was hard to see the disappointment in Grandpa Joe's eyes when he confessed to working for Shaw for years.

And while he didn't work for that despicable man anymore it wasn't hard to see how sad it made his grandpa to see the kind of choices his only grandson had to endure.

Despite everything he'd done he wasn't surprised that his family forgave without question. Although in truth he wouldn't have been surprised either if his mother told him to go turn himself into the police either. Either way his mother hadn't let go of him the entire night.

Erik felt unburden after everything. It didn't stop the guilt or want but there was something about finally confessing to the two closest people in his life that made him feel lighter.

Later, his grandfather told him to take any spare change that could be found around the house so that Erik could go buy them a large chocolate bar to split.

After laughing themselves silly Erik did just that. It had been nice to just sit on his grandfather's bed with his mother leaning into him and his grandfather sitting with energy in his limbs telling them funny little stories about his youth while they snacked on the small bar.

Without the extra income that he'd gotten from his less then legal jobs Erik began to work twice as hard as a shoe shiner. He even moved his business to other parts of town to try and draw in more customers. When that proved to not be enough he started to apply to more legit jobs around town.

While it was harder to gain employment at most larger companies he found that some people would be willing to hire him for smaller jobs, like painting a large fence or moving furniture for the old ladies around town. Those women actually paid more than Shaw had ever done and they came with fresh baked cookies too.

He knew that it was Mr. Solomon who helped secure him those jobs, his recommendations had helped to pave the road, so to speak.

He'd been surprised when he found himself managing to round up just enough money for his grandfather's medicine that first month. Now that he wasn't running around town doing Shaw's dirty work he found satisfaction in his small but significant paychecks.

Even after a few weeks had passed since that fateful day at the factory he still got stopped in the street by reporters or noisy neighbors about why he was still living in his small shack with his family when he was supposedly a multimillionaire. Apparently, Charles Xavier hadn't taken back what he'd said and while no paperwork had been signed, at least by Erik's hand. The world was still in the belief that he was co-owner of Xavier's Chocolates.

Erik had gotten tired of how many times he'd said that it had been a mistake and he wasn't who they thought he was. He now just ignored people who tried to talk to him about it and gave the more persist reporters his deadliest glares.

One day working behind the front desk of Mr. Solomon's store he'd been shocked to see Sean walk in. He'd been shoe shining earlier that day but Mr. Solomon's legs had acted up due to the cold so he'd put on an apron instead and shooed the older gentleman to a rocking chair a few feet away to rest.

Sean had apparently been looking for him something that mystified Erik. Apparently, the others had decided to stay in contact with each other after that day, only Angel was excluded due to her not having left her father's mansion since she'd made it back home. No one was that broken up about that though.

That it had been Sean to find him was surprising, although Erik would have bet money that it had been Alex who had actually tracked him down to where he worked and lived.

After the first initial, awkward greetings he'd been invited to their dinner get together. They mostly spoke over the phone or by letters but every month they made sure that they'd visit each other, if not all three then at least two of them were in the same city together.

Erik hadn't been sure that he would attend at first but found himself dressing in some of his better clothing before he met them for pizza.

It had been an enjoyable experience and while there and been the initial awkwardness between them all Erik found he truly enjoyed their company once they had sat down a filled him in on their lives and hobbies.

Sean was still a chocoholic but he'd tapered it down. Eating other things like fruit and meat, although he still wouldn't touch most vegetables.

Raven, well a lot had happened to her when that day at the factory had ended. Her mother had been disgusted and furious at her daughter's changed appearance and while Raven's skin was still a shade of blue her body was unnaturally flexible now.

She hadn't been kicked out of her home but her mother hadn't wanted anything more to do with her and chose instead to pretend that she didn't even have a daughter.

It had been the final blow to Raven's dwelling confidence. She'd had something of a mental breakdown after that where she would hardly leave her house due to people talking shit about her appearance and her mother's lack of boosting about her like she once did.

Surprisingly it had been Sean who had initiated contact with her first. The young man had been trying to contact all of them since they'd all left that day.

His resolve in helping her recover and acceptance of her appearance had made Raven latch on him quite fiercely. They were nigh unseparatable nowadays.

After that the both of them hunted down Alex and dragged him kicking and screaming into their friendship.

Erik of course had been the last one to join up but that didn't bother him any since those three needed to heal up together more than he did. Not to mention that he had no phone and his out of the way address made things difficult to send letters too.

A few months passed and during that small period of time no word came out of Xavier's Chocolate Factory, Charles was still allusive as ever.

But something must have been going on behind away from the public eye since Shaw's Candies went bankrupt not to soon after Erik had quit. While no official word came out on why Shaw had closed up his stores and factories everyone had their suspicions.

Especially Erik, who didn't know if he was flattered or horrified at the idea that it may have had something to do with him.

It was probably a bit of both feelings truthfully.

He had a lot of mixed feelings for Charles Xavier, most of those feelings were still uncertain even after all this time. He'd only had a day to get to know the man and it wasn't like they'd been at some met-and-greet where their entire attention would have been on each other.

Instead the man had focused on what he needed too, which was trying to rein in a bunch of unruly children and show off his factory to a mix of impressed and unimpressed people.

Still Erik knew that he hadn't been imagining that connection between them. He just didn't know if Charles had felt it too or if Erik had been the only one.

Maybe that's why he liked to imagine that it had been for his sake that Shaw's Candies had folded up and Shaw himself vanished into thin air. Most likely he had fled with whatever money he had left, or maybe the cops had been tipped off about his less then legal activates. Either way Erik and his family hadn't had to deal with any fall out of him quitting like he'd imagined he'd have to deal with.

It had caused a lot of sleepless nights, mostly anxiety was the cause but every once in a while Erik was woken up by more…steamy dreams.

It didn't help that his own family and now Raven and the others knew of his one-sided feelings for the man as well. Apparently, he wasn't as smooth as he thought he was about hiding it.

At the current moment Erik was leaning against a wall as he chatted with his grandfather about planting a few heartier vegetable plants in their small garden area.

His mother was folding a few of their heavy winter blankets back up as the air was warming up and the Winter/Spring weather was fading away. Hopefully the heavy rains that came after the snow would cest and desist soon as well.

"Aren't you going to be late Erik?" His mother asked. "You're going to be late meeting up with your friends if you don't leave soon."

Erik looked down at his watch and swore under his breath, she was right. He should have left at least ten minutes ago if he wanted to arrive at the agreed meet time.

Grandpa Joe just laughed at his misfortune. "Erik my boy, your memory is worse than mine!"

Erik playfully stuck out his tongue at his grandfather, which only made the older man laugh harder, his wheezing cough-laughs filled the air.

His mother sighed with annoyed affection at their antics. She was use to it since Erik had become more carefree lately. Truthfully, she didn't seem to mind his less then stealer manners whenever the mood struck him to act younger then he physically was.

"Darling, remember to tell Raven that I'm almost done with that sweater she ordered. I think it's going to look quiet dashing on her once I've finished."

Erik smiled at his mother before nodding. He gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before waving goodbye to his grandfather. "I don't think I'm going to be staying out late this time. Depends on who chooses dinner this time." His smile widens at their laughter, the last time Sean was the one who got to choose dinner they had all snacked on chocolate fondue until they'd been physically sick.

Strangely enough his family had mysterious smiles on their faces. He couldn't pin it down but he felt like maybe his was missing something.

It was possible that Raven had told them something of what they'd be doing, since Raven had commissioned a home-made sweater from his mother they'd been in contact frequently.

Actually, he'd gotten a weird feeling all week with his family, they'd been whispering to each other whenever he was just out of earshot and while the house had been happier lately this week the smiles and laughter seemed like it had multiplied.

Erik didn't know the cause but he didn't mind so much since he liked the end result.

Sean had been the hardest for them to meet up with in the beginning since his family lived in Scotland but Erik was pretty sure that he now lived at Alex's house. Erik had been surprised to learn that Alex didn't live that far away from him, only a few hours away by train so when they meet up at Alex's town Erik didn't need to spend a lot of money trying to get there.

It made something burn in his gut to think that Sean's parents hadn't even noticed that their own child wasn't living under their roof but Sean was happy so Erik tried not to let it bother him.

Kind of like the anger that burned at the thought of Raven's mother, he didn't think he could dislike someone as much as Shaw but Raven's mother and Sean's parents were high on that list.

Sometimes when they meet he would end up staying an entire weekend while at other times it was only a few hours before he had to catch the train back home.

This time though they were meeting in his home town and for some reason Alex wanted them to hang out at a café near the Xavier factory. He wasn't sure why they were meeting so close to the one place he'd like to avoid for the rest of his life but they had been very insist and he hadn't been able to argue.

Erik sighed at the thought of going to that side of town. It was too late to try to argue the point again since he was sure the others had arrived already.

A few times since then he'd thought of trying to get a hold of Charles and explain himself but each time the thought popped in his head he dismissed it. Even Erik had his pride and the last thing he would allow himself to do would be to damage it irreparably by begging to see the man he had almost stolen from.

Even if it might be worth it to see those blue eyes again.

"Erik, over here!"

Erik lifted his head and waved back at Sean who was standing at the end of the street, waving his hands manically.

It looked like he'd already dipped in some of his special coco today.

"Good day Sean. Where is everyone else?" Erik asked as Sean began to walk in step with him.

"They're just ahead of us, actually there's someone else today who would like to join us." Sean's eyes got shifty as he looked everywhere else but at Erik.

Erik raised an unimpressed eyebrow at both the statement and his friend's odd behavior. "Not Angel I take it?"

"Oh, gods no!" Sean laughed at the very thought of the she-witch joining them. "No, but it's someone else that you know."

"Okay…are you going to tell me who we're meeting?" Erik asked, not really caring about who this person was, it was probably just some waitress or host from one of the dinners they frequented who was trying to get into one of their pants. It happened more frequently then he'd like since whenever they went to a public place most people recognized the golden ticket winners when they were together. He was more interested in seeing his friend's reactions when he got pissed off enough to yell at the person.

"Nope." Sean smirked mischievously.

"Fine then, keep your secrets."

It didn't take them long to reach the end of the street, Sean passed the small café Erik had thought they were meeting at and Erik just followed him silently.

It was only then that Erik fully realized how close they were to the factory gates.

"Hey Sean, could we perhaps meet them somewhere else?" Erik asked as he stared at the towering vent stacks that landmarked the factory from afar. He'd forgotten how much bigger everything was this much closer.

Sean didn't answer him, instead he was staring intently at something ahead of them.

"What could you possibly be looking…at…?" Erik turned his own gaze forward and faltered, his legs grounded to a halt as the front gate of the factory stood open just ahead of him.

Alex and Raven were standing inside the factory courtyard, Hank was standing nearby and seemed to be talking enthusiastically about something while they listened to him intently.

And standing right next to them barely a foot away was one, Charles Xavier.

Next to him Sean smirked sideways before bouncing over towards the others, joining in on the conversation effortlessly.

It became clear to Erik that this wasn't the first time they had all visited together. Something that normally would have made the feeling of betrayal burning through him, but at that moment he couldn't feel anything else other than shock.

Erik stayed back. He felt like if he moved an inch he would shatter the imagine before him. To be honest he hadn't ever expected to see the elusive Chocolatier ever again.

But here they were, standing barely a few yards away, staring at each other.

After a few more minutes that felt like an eternity Erik made the first move. He slowly moved forward the short distance towards the others.

He almost stopped again when he walked pasted the open gates, but he pushed forward. Never once turning his eyes away from Charles.

"Mr. Xavier." Erik acknowledged as pleasantly and blandly as possible and it's not want he wants to say or do but it feels like his emotions were a screaming mess inside of him, it was either shut them down or have a panic attack in public.

There are many things he wants to do at that moment. He wants to run up and hug the man as tight as he could. A part of him also wants to walk right back into that fantastic factory and get down to work, making unimaginable and wonderful candies and impossibilities.

But he doesn't, of course he doesn't.

Instead he's standing a foot away and speaking like he would to a complete stranger who he's being forced to talk to under polite pretense.

Sometimes he really hates himself.

"Mr. Lehnsherr." Charles greeted back just as pleasantly. Something Erik noticed though was the tremble of his voice, it sounded like Charles was barely containing his emotions. Now if only Erik could tell which kind of emotions those were he'd be able to respond in kind.

Erik didn't know what he was going to say now.

He hadn't expected this, not at all. He might have to strangle his only friends as well, more's the pity.

"I knew you know." Charles spoke suddenly in the quiet. It was only then that Erik noticed the others had stopped talking and were watching them intently. He flushed at the attention but didn't bother to make a scene about it.

"I'm sorry?" Erik asked, confused by the out of place admittance.

"I knew you were working for Shaw. I also know that the man had ordered you to steal something of mine for him. Just like I knew that Angel had been working for Miss Frost." Charles didn't explain exactly how he had known this but Erik didn't care, he was too busy panicking internally.

Charles stared attentively at Erik. Compassion and not a little sadness swirling in his crystal blue eyes.

"I also saw the moment you snatched the Gobstopper."

Erik's expression was bemused enough for Charles to explain in more detail.

"That's the name of the candy you had taken from the table."

"Oh, right then." Erik's emotions quickly turned from confused shock to anger.

"Why then, didn't you say anything if you knew?"

Maybe if Charles had confronted him from the beginning Erik wouldn't have had to carry the guilt of deceiving everyone that he now cares for.

Charles adjusted his hat for a second before taking it off and fidgeting with it before nervously placing it back on.

It was obvious that was having trouble with his words, although for what reason Erik couldn't fathom.

"I guess I didn't want to spook you. At that moment, I could see that you were struggling with what you had done. I had also suspected, well more like hoped, that you would confront me yourself if given the time too."

"So- wait. You knew I wanted to tell you the truth? But you continually stopped me, why would you do that if you wanted me to come clean?"

The hat was once again being strangled in Charles nervous hands.

"I don't know why really, I believe that I may have had some kind of panic attack the first time I saw that you were ready to speak. That and I may or may not have a nervous habit of chattering when I'm feeling confused and anxious."

Alex snorted nearby but the sound of Raven solidly hitting him in the arm stopped Erik from glaring at the teen for the obviously eavesdropping.

"I would have allowed you to walk away with it you know." Charles confessed.

Erik stared at him. "You can't mean that."

"I do. I hadn't expected you to drop the candy back into my pocket but I won't say that I'm not pleasantly surprised by it." Charles smiled softly at Erik's wide-eyed stare.

"My offer still stands Erik and it will continue to stand even if you say no right now."

"The others-" he raised his hand and waved a bit in the direction of their ever-watching friends. "Already work in lesser departments in the factory. I truly believe that they've all learned an important lesson that day. So, when they came here to confront me about you I knew that they had made it to the point of actual decent human beings."

Once again Alex snickered out loud and once again Raven smacked him harshly for it.

"I'm not going to lie to you Erik."

"I will admit freely that I dislike Shaw to the point that there is a mutual distain of murderous proportions between us. But I will not let that color my views of you, just because you once worked for him doesn't mean that it will taint any future that you may have at my- no, our factory."

"You are a brilliant man, Erik Lehnsherr. I would dearly love to see that brilliance shine more often than not." Charles shuffled his feet a little before moving forward until he was only a few inches away. "Also…umm I was wondering if you would like to go out for coffee with me?" That was defiantly a blush on the chocolatier's face.

Erik contemplated being speechless at this point. But really, what was the point of that?

He already knew what his answer would was going to be, because even after all this time his feelings about the man standing in front of him hadn't dimmed in the slightest.

What Erik knew was that Charles had known about him, about how Erik thieved from him with the intention of giving away his precious candy to his hated rival. But Charles forgave him and would apparently have allowed him to walk away and gave Shaw the evil satisfaction of winning.

Erik moved the last few inches that parted them.

"I think my dear chocolatier." Erik said teasingly. "That I would love to work with you, and yes- coffee sounds great."

Charles beamed at him and with the hooting and cheering from the others in the background Erik smiled widely back, for once completely happy with where his life looked to be heading.

~The End~


End file.
